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PRINCETON  •  NEW  JERSEY 

FROM  THE  LIBRARY  OF 
ROBERT  ELLIOTT  SPEER 

BV  320D  .R62  -3:922 

Rockey,  Helen  M. 

The  wonderland  of  India 


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in  2018  with  funding  from 
Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


https://archive.org/details/wonderlandofindiOOrock_0 


Students  at  'i’yiulale-Biseoe  s  seliool  in  Kaslnnir  jumping  into 

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THE  WONDERLAND 
OE  INDIA 


JAN  15  1959 


BY 


l/"  ^"'^i^GlCAL 
HELEN  ISI.  HOCKEY 

AND 

HAROLD  R.  HUNTING 


MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  MOVEMENT 
OF  THE  UNITED  STAT?:S  AND  CANADA 
NEW  YORK 


Copyright,  1922,  by 
Missionary  Education  jMovement 
OF  THE  United  States  and  Canada 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I  OuK  Indian  Cousins  ....  1 

II  A  Land  of  Many  Races  ...  15 

III  Everyday  India . 29 

IV  ‘Mying  Jesus  Is  Come”  .  .  .45 

V  Schooldays . 62 

VI  Feeding  the  Hungry  ....  84 

VII  Adventures  in  Healing  ...  97 

VIII  New  Wonders  in  an  Ancient  Won¬ 
derland  . 112 

Word  List . 125 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


Students  at  Tyndale-Biscoe’s  scliool 

Frontispiece 


A  village  courtyard  . 

PAGE 

5 

Darjeeling . 

.  17 

The  Taj  Mahal  .... 

to 

An  Indian  charpoi 

.  32 

A  worker  in  ]3rass 

.  35 

A  Hindu  temple  .... 

.  41 

An  Indian  merry-go-ronnd 

.  46 

A  native  orchestra 

.  48 

A  fakir  or  ‘Dioly  man”  . 

.  53 

A  village  prayer  meeting 

.  59 

A  mosque  school 

.  64 

A  village  mission  school  . 

.  65 

Athletics  at  Lucknow  Christian 

College 

68 

Baseball  in  India 

.  74 

Brahman  girls  of  South  India 

.  77 

Indian  Girl  Guides 

.  80 

” Missionaries  in  feathers” 

.  88 

The  native  plow 

.  91 

A  leper  congregation 

.  99 

Dr.  Ida  Scudder’s  Ford  . 

.  109 

FOREWORD 


The  stories  in  this  book  will  show  you 
that  in  some  ways  the  people  of  India  are 
different  from  us  in  America,  and  that  in 
other  ways  we  and  they  are  very  much 
alike.  The  differences  help  to  make  them 
interesting.  But  we  hope  you  will  agree 
with  us  that  the  likenesses  are  mnch  more 
numerous  and  important.  They  are  our 
brothers  and  sisters,  and  God  is  the  com¬ 
mon  Father  of  us  all. 

The  Authors 


CHAPTER  ONE 


Our  Indian  Cousins 

The  thatched  roof  of  the  mud  house  had  been 
baking  all  day  under  the  intense  heat  of  the  Indian 
sun. 

“If  the  rains  would  only  come  !”  sighed'  Sonika/ 
as  she  scoured  the  last  brass  pot  with  mud  and 
grass  gathered  from  the  door-yard. 

“When  they  come,  you’ll  complain  just  as  much 
because  they  keep  on!”  commented  her  brother 
Rama.  “Let’s  go  out  and  talk  to  Grandfather. 
Maybe  he’ll  tell  us  about  the  Motherland.  He 
always  seems  happy  when  he  is  talking  about 
India;  have  you  noticed!” 

Under  the  shade  of  the  big  tamarind  tree  sat 
Grandfather,  enjoying  the  shadows  and  the  quiet 
of  the  early  evening.  A  dignified,  high-caste 
Hindu  was  Grandfather.  He  knew  more,  the  chil¬ 
dren  thought,  than  most  anyone  else  could  know. 
The  long  hookah  he  had  been  peacefully  smoking 
had  gone  out,  and  as  the  children  came  near,  the 
old  man  was  reaching  out  his  wrinkled  hand  to 
lift  with  small  tongs  a  bright  coal  from  a  brazier 
at  hand  for  that  purpose.  He  lighted  the  pipe 
and  drew  slowly  through  the  long  tube  the  smoke 
that  was  jdeasantly  cooled  in  the  water  through 
which  it  passed.  Rama  liked  the  cheerful  hubble- 


1  For  pronunciation  of  foreign  words  see  Word  List,  p.  125. 


2 


THE  WONDERLAND  OF  INDIA 


l)ul)ble  sound  it  made  and  watched  the  whole  pro¬ 
ceeding  with  as  much  interest  as  if  it  were  not  a 
daily,  hourly  occurrence. 

Sonika  was  first  to  speak.  “Grandfather,”  she 
said,  “and  is  it  true,  as  the  missionary  Sahib  said 
yesterday,  that  his  ancestors  and  ours  came  from 
the  same  f)lacef  Are  his  children  really  our 
cousins?” 

The  old  man  smoked  on  without  replying  for 
several  minutes,  while  the  children,  lying  on  the 
ground,  dug  their  toes  into  the  soft  earth.  They 
were  used  to  long  pauses,  these  gentle  children  of 
India. 

At  length  the  grandfather  began;  “Many  cen¬ 
turies  ago  the  white  man’s  ancestors  and  ours 
lived  together  on  the  plateaus  of  central  Asia. 
They  were  called  Aryans.  They  were  shepherds 
and  wandered  from  one  pasture  to  another  where- 
ever  they  could  best  find  food  and  water  for  their 
flocks.  As  their  numbers  increased,  there  was  not 
enough  room  for  all;  many  of  them  gradually 
moved  to  lands  where  food  was  more  plentiful. 
Some  went  west  to  Europe,  and  most  of  the  white 
races  and  nations  of  Europe  and  America  are 
descended  from  them.  Others  still,  perhaps  at 
about  the  time  of  Joseph  and  his  brothers,  of 
whom  the  missionary  Sahib  tells  us,  made  their 
way  into  India.  Singing  hymns  in  praise  of  their 
gods,  and  driving  their  flocks  and  herds  before 
them,  they  poured  over  the  passes  in  the  moun- 


OUR  INDIAN  COUSINS 


3 


tains  and  took  possession  of  the  plains  of  northern 
India. 

‘  ‘  And  now  tell  us  about  their  gods !  ’  ’  broke  in 
Sonika,  as  she  always  did  just  here  in  Grand¬ 
father’s  story,  for  she  liked  this  part  especially. 

‘‘They  worshipped  the  ‘Bright  Ones’ — the  sun 
and  the  moon  and  the  stars;  the  sky,  the  dawn, 
and  the  storm.” 

“And  what  was  it  the  Sahib  said  about  their 
words  f”  interrupted  Eama. 

‘  ‘  I  know  !  ’  ’  exclaimed  a  new  voice. 

The  three  turned  quickly  to  see  Bob,  the  son 
of  the  missionary  Sahib,  standing  near  with 
Peggy,  his  cousin,  who  had  recently  come  to  the 
village  to  visit.  Peggy’s  father  was  a  missionary, 
too,  and  she  lived  in  the  next  district. 

“I  have  heard  Father  say,”  Bob  continued, 
“that  they  all  spoke  a  language  called  Sanskrit. 
It  was  something  like  the  Greek  and  Latin  I  am 
going  to  study  when  I  go  to  college.” 

“Yes,”  said  Grandfather,  “and  Sanskrit  was 
the  parent  of  many  of  the  languages  spoken  in 
our  Motiierland,  India.” 

“The  Sahil)  said  some  of  his  words  and  ours 
are  alike,”  put  in  Eama.  “He  said  you  have  a 
word  like  our  ag.  AVhat  is  it?” 

“Your  <7/7, ”  replied  Bol),  “means  tire,  doesn’t 
it!  Agui  was  the  Aryan  name  for  the  god  of  fire 
and  from  that  we  get  our  ‘ignite,’  meaning  to 
burn.” 


4 


THE  WONJJEHLAND  OF  JNOIA 


“Ask  youT  Grandfatlier  to  tell  some  more  about 
India,”  whispered  Peggy  to  Soiiika.  “We  have 
been  listening  behind  the  tree,”  she  chuckled. 

“Tell  some  more.  Grandfather,”  begged  the 
children.  But  at  that  moment  there  entered  the 
courtyard  where  they  were  sitting  an  old,  old  man. 

“Oh,  here  comes  Shukboo!”  shouted  Rama. 
“Shukboo  is  here!  Shukboo  is  here!”  he  called, 
so  that  all  the  villagers  who  were  near  might  hear, 
and  they  came,  as  fast  as  their  occupations  woull 
let  them,  to  gather  about  the  old  man. 

“Who’s  Shukboo?”  asked  Peggy  as  soon  as  sh.e 
could  make  Bob  and  Sonika  stop  jumping  up  and 
down  with  glee. 

“Why  Shukboo  tells  stories.  Oh,  he’s  great! 
Just  you  wait!”  exclaimed  Bol). 

It  is  a  curious  fact  about  India  that  so  many 
of  her  customs  are  centuries  old.  We  have 
changed  our  ways  of  living  and  of  doing  things 
centurv  bv  centurv,  vear  bv  vear,  almost  dav  bv 
day,  but  there  are,  in  India,  ways  of  doing  things 
— customs — which  have  remained  the  same  for 
thousands  of  years.  And  now,  in  exactly  the  same 
fashion  as  in  centuries  gone  by,  a  Hindu  story¬ 
teller  had  entered  a  courtyard  in  a  village  in 
India.  About  him  quickly  gathered  a  group  just 
as  in  years  gone  by — boys  and  girls — and  men  too. 
No  women  were  present,  because  it  is  not  con¬ 
sidered  proper  for  a  caste  woman  to  appear  out¬ 
side  her  home. 


OUR  IXDIAN  COUSINS 


5 


While  they  sat  upon  the  gTOuiid  or  lounged 
about,  there  were  monkeys  chattering  on  the 
thatched  roofs  of  the  low  mnd-honses  which  sur¬ 
rounded  the  courtyard,  on  intimate  terms — some¬ 
times  too  intimate — with  the  listeners. 


Within  the  mnd  walls  of  this  village  courtyard  are  men  and 
animals,  beds,  water  jars,  and,  piled  up  in  a  corner,  cakes  of 
dried  fuel — a  combination  not  unusual  in  India. 


The  hoys  and  girls  played  together  much  as 
l)oys  and  girls  do  anywhere.  They  were  lovable 
children,  too,  with  their  soft,  brown,  wondering 
eyes. 

The  men  and  boys  wore,  for  the  most  part,  a 
^‘one-piece”  suit  called  a  dhoti,  which  is  a  long 
strip  of  cloth  wrapped  about  the  middle  of  their 


6 


THE  WONDERLAND  OF  INDIA 


])odies.  But  clotliiiig  is  of  no  coiis'eciuence  and  of 
little  trouble  to  these  Indian  cousins  of  ours. 
Their  bare  brown  arms  and  shoulders  glistened 
in  the  sun.  On  their  heads  the  men  wore  a  pagri, 
a  turban  composed  of  eight  yards  of  material 
wound  around  and  around,  its  many  folds  pro¬ 
tecting  the  head  from  the  hot  Indian  sun.  A  few 
of  the  men  wore  shirts  too ;  as  did  some  of  the 
boys.  Sprinkled  thickly  through  the  group  were 
little  naked  brown  bal)ies. 

Although  there  were  no  older  women  listening 
to  the  tale  of  long  ago,  there  were  many  little 
girls  to  be  seen,  each  wearing  one  long  piece  of 
cloth,  a  sari,  skilfully  and  picturesquely  wound 
about  them  from  tip  to  toe  and  ingeniously  and 
mysteriously  fastened  without  pin,  hook,  or  but¬ 
ton.  No  troublesome  hooks  and  eyes,  no  buttons, 
no  tapes  bring  trouble  every  morning  to  these 
little  Indian  girls  as  they  dress.  And  as  for  shoe¬ 
strings  for  either  boys  or  girls!  No  knots  are 
rudely  snapped  as  school-time  hurries  forward; 
there  are  no  big  shoe  bills  for  Father  at  the  end 
of  each  month,  and  no  darning  of  socks  and  stock¬ 
ings  for  Mother,  for  no  one  in  India  ever  wears 
stockings,  and  nearly  everyone  goes  barefoot  most 
of  the  time.  Some  people  Avere  wearing  sandals — 
made  of  wood  or  of  straw — and  Pegg}-  noticed  a 
few  men  in  sharply  pointed  slippers  which  flip- 
flapped  as  they  walked. 

Peggy  was  fairly  pop-eyed  with  interest,  for 


OUR  INDIAN  COUSINS 


7 


even  tliougli  slie  did  not  live  far  away,  some  of 
the  customs  and  even  the  clothes  were  slightly  dif¬ 
ferent  from  those  of  the  district  where  she  lived. 
There  was  a  little  different  twist  to  the  pagri,  a 
little  change  in  the  winding  of  the  sari.  Even  the 
dialect  was  a  trifle  ditferent,  some  words  puzzling 
her.  But  for  the  most  part,  she  could  understand, 
and  Sonika  and  she  could  talk  together  fairly  well. 

After  Peggy  had  looked  at  the  people  for  some 
time,  she  began  to  see  and  hear  more  familiar  and 
homelike  sights  and  sounds.  '  Yonder  was  a  cow, 
munching  straw  in  the  corner  of  the  yard.  Near 
her  was  a  pair  of  goats.  Under  her  feet  a  few 
rather  scrawny  chickens  were  scratching  in  the 
dirt. 

‘‘Old  Shukboo  is  going  to  begin  in  a  minute,” 
said  Rama.  So  they  gathered  with  the  others 
around  the  old  man.  “Shukboo  is  blind,”  said 
Bob  to  Peggy.  “That  may  be  one  reason  why  he 
remembers  his  stories  so  well, — he  is  not  troubled 
with  seeing  everything  that  is  going  on  about 
him.”  He  remembered,  too,  hearing  his  father 
say  that  probably  Shukboo  finds  comfort,  as  the 
long  hours  pass,  repeating  to  himself  the  old  tales 
of  his  native  land. 

Soon  Shukboo  motioned  with  his  hand.  Sonika, 
Peggy,  and  Rama  stopped  their  chattering,  and 
the  old  man  began  to  speak. 

“What  is  this  he  is  telling!  Why,  it  is  our  dear 
old  story  of  Cinderella,”  said  Peggy  to  herself. 


8 


THE  WONDERLAND  OF  INDIA 


‘‘Only,  the  good  and  lovely  child  has  quite  another 
name,  but  it  is  surely  the  same  story!”  When  it 
was  ended,  Shukboo  told  another  and  another 
story,  and,  to  Peggy’s  amazement,  they  sounded 
not  at  all  unfamiliar.  ‘  ‘  Can  it  be  that  stories  are 
cousins,  the  same  as  people  I”  she  thought. 

‘  ‘  Oh,  this  is  one  we  love !  ’  ’  whispered  Sonika 
excitedly,  and  thereupon  Bob  and  Peggy  listened 
to  their  own  “Chicken-Little”  and  “Henny- 
Penny”  story  in  an  Indian  dress. 

“Once  upon  a  time,”  said  old  Shukboo,  “a  cer¬ 
tain  rabbit  lived  beneath  a  palm  tree.  As  he  was 
sleeping,  one  day,  some  monkeys  dropped  a  coco¬ 
nut  which  fell  to  the  ground  with  a  thud  and  rat¬ 
tled  on  a  dry  palm  leaf.  ‘The  solid  earth  is  break¬ 
ing  up,’  thought  the  rabbit  and,  starting  up,  he 
fled  without  so  much  as  looking  behind  him.  A 
brother  rabbit,  seeing  him  scampering  off  as 
though  frightened  to  death,  asked,  ‘Why  are  you 
running?’  Without  looking  back,  the  first  rabbit 
replied,  ‘The  solid  earth  is  breaking  up.’  Where¬ 
upon  the  second  rabbit  ran  after  the  first.  They 
met  a  third  rabbit,  who  asked  why  they  were  run¬ 
ning  so  fast.  ‘Because  the  solid  earth  is  breaking 
up,’  they  replied  in  chorus,  and  he  too  began  to 
run.  And  so  one  rabbit  after  another  joined  in 
the  flight,  until  one  hundred  thousand  rabbits  were 
running  together.  In  turn  they  met  a  deer,  a  lioar, 
an  elk,  a  liuffalo,  a  wild  ox,  a  rhinoceros,  a  tiger, 
and  an  elephant.  And  as  each  asked  why  the 


OUR  INDIAN  COUSINS 


9 


others  were  running  and  were  told  that  the  earth 
was  breaking  up,  they  too  took  flight  until  it 
seemed  as  if  all  the  animals  in  the  world  were 
running  away. 

Then  the  Bodhisattva’^  saw  them.  When  he 
noted  their  headlong  flight,  he  thought  to  himself, 
M  must  save  them,  or  they  will  all  perish.’  So, 
taking  a  lion’s  shape,  he  ran  with  great  speed  in 
front  of  them  and  roared  like  the  king  of  beasts 
three  times. 

Instantly,  the  animals,  the  one  hundred  thou¬ 
sand  rabbits,  the  deer,  the  boar,  the  elk,  the 
buffalo,  the  wild  ox,  the  rhinoceros,  the  tiger,  and 
the  elephant  all  stood  still,  huddled  together. 

“  ‘Why  are  you  running!’  the  Bodhisattva 
asked. 

“  ‘The  elephants  know,’  the  others  replied. 

“  ‘Why  are  you  running!’  asked  the  Bodhisat¬ 
tva  of  the  elephants. 

“  ‘We  don’t  know,’  replied  the  elephants,  ‘the 
tigers  know.’ 

“  ‘Why  are  you  running!’  asked  the  Bodhisattva 
of  the  tigers.  The  tigers  replied,  ‘We  don’t 
know,  but  the  rhinoceroses  know.’  And  the  rhin¬ 
oceroses  said,  ‘the  wild  oxen  know,’  and  so  on 
down  to  the  rabbits.  And  when  the  rabbits  were 
rpiestioned,  they  pointed  to  one  particular  rabbit 

1  A  word  used  among  tlie  Buddhists  to  describe  a  being  of  great 
wisdom  who  lias  almost  attained  Buddahood  or  complete  enlight¬ 
enment. 


10 


THE  WONDERLAND  OF  INDIA 


and  said,  ‘This  one  told  us.’  So  this  rabbit  ex- 
])lained  that  he  had  been  lying  under  a  palm  tree 
and  had  heard  a  sound  like  a  thud  and  had  said 
to  himself,  ‘The  solid  earth  is  breaking  up.’ 

Then  the  Bodhisattva  took  the  rabbit  on  his 
])ack,  and,  with  the  speed  of  a  lion,  they  wont  to  the 
palm  tree  wdiere  the  rabbit  had  been  lying.  As 
they  approached,  a  monkey  threw^  a  coconut  on  the 
ground,  and  pt  fell  wdth  a  thud,  and  then  they 
knew"  that  the  noise  had  been  only  the  thud  of  a 
coconut  as  it  fell.  So  they  came  back  and  told  the 
\vhole  story  to  all  the  beasts,  and  tlie  Bodhisattva 
hade  them  not  to  be  afraid,  but  to  go  home.  And 
having  thus  reassured  them,  the  long  procession 
started  liack.  But  verily,  if  it  had  not  been  for 
the  Bodhisattva,  all  the  beasts  wmuld  have  rushed 
into  the  sea  and  perished.” 

When  Bob  and  Peggy  w"ere  again  at  home,  they 
found  Bob’s  father  sitting  on  the  veranda  resting 
after  a  long  day’s  w"ork  in  the  intense  heat. 

“Father,”  said  Bob,  “wdiy  is  it  that  there  are 
so  many  different  kinds  of  people  in  India!” 

“Not  all  of  the  people  of  India  are  Aryans,” 
replied  his  father.  “Before  the  Aryans  came, 
the  land  w"as  inhabited  by  a  dark-skinned  people 
called  the  Dravidian  aborigines.  The  Aryans  con¬ 
quered  these  people,  drove  them  soutlnvard  and, 
in  part,  made  them  slaves.  The  newcomers  w"ere 
very  proud  of  their  race  and  wmre  anxious  that 


OUR  INDIAN  COUSINS 


II 


their  children  should  have  very  little  to  do  with 
the  natives,  and  especially  that  they  should  not 
marry  one  another.  To  prevent  this,  the  older 
people  established  a  strict  system  of  classes  or 
castes,  and  made  it  a  part  of  their  religion  that 
each  caste  should  keep  apart  from  the  others.  At 
first  there  were  four  great  castes :  the  Brahmans, 
or  priests;  the  Kshattriyas,  or  warriors;  the  Vai- 
shyas,  or  artisans,  farmers  and  traders,  and,  low¬ 
est  of  all,  the  Sudras,  the  non-Aryan  natives.  So, 
to  this  day,  it  is  the  high-caste  people  of  India 
who  most  nearly  resemble  the  white  races  of 
Europe  and  America.  Their  skins  are  indeed 
brown,  but  not  so  dark  brown  as  the  low-caste 
folk.” 

‘‘iVre  these  light-skinned  people  like  Sonika  and 
Eama  brighter  than  the  others!”  asked  Bob. 

”Xo,”  said  his  father.  ”Peoi)le  used  to  think 
they  were,  but  they  are  finding  out  that  the  boys 
and  girls  of  the  so-called  lower  non-Aryan  castes 
are  just  as  clever,  just  as  reliable,  and  just  as 
lovable  as  high-caste  Sonika  and  Kama.”  He 
paused  a  moment  thoughtfully  before  he  contin¬ 
ued.  ^  ‘  They  are  all  human  beings  and  our  broth¬ 
ers,  even  though  some  may  be  more  closely  related 
to  us  by  race  than  others.  One  of  the  greatest 
wrongs,  perhaps  the  greatest  of  all,  of  India  in 
all  its  history  has  been  race  prejudice.  For  the 
caste  system,  as  we  have  seen,  grew  out  of  race 
prejudice,  and  it  has  held  back  all  races,  high- 


12 


THE  WONDERLAND  OF  INDIA 


caste  Aryan,  Bralimaii,  and  low-caste  Sudra  alike. 
The  system  lias  continually  grown  more  compli¬ 
cated  and  burdensome. 

At  first  there  were  four  castes,  as  I  said  a  mo¬ 
ment  ago.  Now  there  are  nearly  three  thou¬ 
sand.  Each  different  trade  and  occupation, 
such  as  the  potters,  the  carpenters,  the  black¬ 
smiths,  and  so  on,  form  castes  by  themselves. 
No  member  of  any  of  these  must  come  into  con¬ 
tact  with,  or  eat  any  food  which  has  been  han¬ 
dled  by  any  person  belonging  to  another  caste.  No 
one  may  change  his  caste  or  climb,  by  hard  work 
and  study,  to  a  higher  one.  If  a  boy’s  father  is  a 
weaver,  he  must  not  try  to  be  a  carpenter  or  a 
clerk  when  he  grows  up.  He  too  must  be  a  weaver. 

And,  worse  still,  underneath  these  three  thou¬ 
sand  regular  castes,  there  are  about  fifty  millions 
of  outcastes,  and  they  are  treated  like  dogs.  Most 
of  these  poor  creatures  are  descended  from  the 
aborigines,  but  some  are  probably  descended  from 
members  of  higher  castes  who  were  so  unfortunate 
as  to  break  some  of  the  caste  laws,  and  who  were 
therefore  banished  from  their  own  people.  Of 
course  there  can  be  little  progress  or  prosperity 
for  anyone,  high  or  low,  in  a  land  where  people 
must  so  strictly  keep  apart  from  each  other,  ex¬ 
cept  within  their  own  small  groups.” 

After  a  few  minutes  Bob  said,  ‘‘Father,  why  is 
Hassan  different  from  Sonika  and  Rama!” 

“Because  Hassan  is  a  Mohammedan,”  said 


OUR  INDIAN  COUSINS 


13 


his  father,  “and  Sonika  and  Kama  are  Hindus.” 

“What’s  the  difference!”  asked  Bob. 

“The  Hindus,”  replied  his  father,  “are  those 
Aryans  who  came  over  the  mountain  passes. 
They  brought  with  them  the  worship  of  the  sun 
and  moon  and  stars.” 

“That’s  what  Sonika ’s  grandfather  said,” 
broke  in  Peggy. 

“Later  on  they  began  to  worship  idols.  Some¬ 
times  these  idols  were  just  a  stone  or  a  piece  of 
wood.  Sometimes  they  were  an  elaborately 
carved  image.  They  kept  on  making  gods  and 
idols  until  they  had  them  by  the  million.  And  all 
the  time  the  caste  idea  was  ever  becoming  a 
stronger  part  of  their  religion. 

“And  the  Mohammedans,  Uncle  John,”  inter¬ 
rupted  Peggy,  “where  did  they  come  from!” 

“Centuries  later,  a  thousand  years  after  Christ, 
some  Afghan  tribes  swept  down  from  the  north 
just  as  the  old  Aryans  had  done,  and  inhabited 
the  land.  They  brought  with  them  a  belief  in  one 
God,  Allah,  and  in  Mohammed,  his  prophet.  The 
mere  sight  of  the  Hindus  worshipping  many  gods 
Avas  so  hateful  to  them  that  they  went  about  the 
country  destroying  temples  and  smashing  idols. 
They  even  forced  many  Hindus  at  the  point  of 
the  sword  to  become  Mohammedans,  and  the  strife 
over  religion  between  the  Mohammedan  and  the 
Hindu  which  began  then  is  still  going  on.” 

After  a  few  minutes  he  added:  “But  you  and 


14 


THE  WONDERLAND  OF  INDIA 


Peggy  and  other  boys  and  girls  like  you  must 
help  our  Indian  cousins  to  undo  the  mistakes 
which  those  Aryans  made,  so  long  ago,  in  saddling 
upon  their  children  through  all  these  centuries 
that  stupid  and  wicked  caste  system.  And  the  best 
help  yon  can  give  is  to  bring  to  this  land  of  old 
and  beautiful  stories,  a  yet  more  wonderful  story, 
and  most  wonderful  in  that  it  is  true ;  the  story 
of  One  who  came  into  the  world  to  be  everybody’s 
brother,  and  who,  more  than  any  other  influence, 
has  taught  the  world  the  sweetness  and  beauty  of 
love.” 


CHAPTER  TWO 


A  Land  of  Many  Races 

Caste  divisions  and  religious  divisions  are  not 
the  only  obstacles  in  the  way  of  brotherhood  in 
India.  It  is  a  land  of  many  races  besides  the 
Aryans  and  the  original  natives.  Nearly  one  Imn- 
dred  and  fifty  different  languages  and  dialects  are 
spoken  within  its  borders. 

One  may  see  many  of  these  different  races  any 
day  on  the  street  of  any  Indian  city.  From  the 
kind  of  garment  a  person  wears,  often  one  may 
tell  the  race  to  which  he  belongs,  what  his  religion 
is,  and  the  part  of  India  from  which  he  comes. 

If  we  were  to  go  with  Bob  and  Peggy  to  Luck¬ 
now,  Bob’s  father  would  tell  us  that  that  man 
swaggering  over  there  with  a  long  beard  dyed 
red,  with  baggy  trousers  which  are  caught  in  at 
the  ankles,  with  a  big  turban  and  a  long  shirt-like 
coat  and  a  fancy  vest,  is  from  the  Afghan  border, 
a  Pathan  in  race  and  a  Mohammedan  in  religion. 
Near  him  is  a  fat  roly-poly  man  with  loose-flowing 
draperies,  a  fancy  hat  on  his  head,  a  long,  colored 
scarf  around  his  neck,  and  an  umbrella  in  his 
hand,  to  show  his  importance.  He  is  a  Bengali, 
that  is,  a  native  of  Bengal,  a  province  which  lies 
at  the  lower  end  of  the  Ganges  valley.  In  religion 
he  is  a  high-caste  Hindu.  The  woman  covered 
from  head  to  foot  with  a  long  white  garment  with 

15 


16 


THE  WONDERLAND  OF  INDIA 


only  tiny  holes  for  her  eyes,  is  probably  a  Moham¬ 
medan,  Stepping  out  of  that  palanquin  which 
four  men  have  been  carrying,  we  catch  a  glimpse 
of  another  woman  draped  in  a  lovely  salmon-pink 
silk  robe.  She  holds  her  veil  well  forward  so  that 
it  is  impossible  to  see  anything  of  her  face.  She 
is  a  very  proper  high-caste  Hindu  lady.  The  men 
who  carry  the  palanquin  are  wearing  very  little 
clothing — only  a  long  cloth  knotted  around  the 
middle  of  their  bodies. 

Behind  this  group  comes  a  poor  old  woman, 
wearing  about  as  little  clothing  as  the  palanquin 
bearers,  yet  with  a  wisp  of  a  veil  over  her  head 
and  face.  Why  do  the  passers-by  draw  to  one  side 
to  avoid  walking  near  her  ?  She  is  dirty,  but  that 
is  not  the  reason.  They  avoid  her  because  she  is 
one  of  those  ‘‘outcastes”  who  are  supposed  to 
defile  any  good  Hindu  whom  they  may  happen  to 
touch.  JNText  we  see  the  motor-car  of  one  of  the 
English  residents,  carrying  a  party  of  English 
friends.  What  a  strange  mixture  of  human  be¬ 
ings  !  How  did  they  all  happen  to  be  living  here 
together? 

If  we  glance  at  the  map  at  the  beginning  of  this 
book,  we  shall  see  that  India  is  a  great  pear- 
shaped  peninsula  extending  southward  from  the 
continent  of  Asia  into  the  Indian  ocean.  All  along 
its  northern  edge  are  the  Himalaya  Mountains. 
Bob  hit  upon  a  very  good  comiiarison  when  he 
said  that  India  looks  like  an  ice-cream  cone.  To 


Darjeeling,  with  its  highly  cultivated  gardens  and  the  ricli  green  of  its  foliage  in  contrast 
to  the  glistening  snow  of  the  mighty  Himalayas. 


18 


THE  WONDERLAND  OF  INDIA 


the  south  is  the  point  of  the  cone,  and  the  moun¬ 
tains  to  the  nortli  are  the  ice-cream  overflowing 
at  the  toi).  The  Himalayas  are  the  highest  moun¬ 
tains  in  the  world.  Mount  Everest,  the  highest 
peak,  rising  29,000  feet  above  the  sea  level,  has 
never  been  climbed,  and  only  very  recently  have 
attempts  been  made  to  reach  the  top.  There  are 
other  peaks  almost  as  high.  Even  the  passes 
througli  which  run  the  roads  from  India  to  the 
north,  northeast,  and  northwest,  are  covered  with 
snow  all  the  year  round. 

Now  look  again  at  the  map,  and  you  will  notice 
that  almost  all  of  the  country  south  of  the  moun¬ 
tains  lies  below  the  Tropic  of  Cancer.  This  surely 
indicates  that  India  is  a  hot  country.  Only  in  the 
extreme  north  is  there  any  really  cold  \veather,  and 
no  snow,  except  on  the  mountains.  Even  in  the 
months  of  January  and  February  the  days  are  hot 
in  the  central  and  southern  ji^irts  of  India,  al¬ 
though  the  nights  are  cool.  There  is,  however, 
much  variation  in  climate.  In  the  Punjab  prov¬ 
ince,  in  the  northwest,  January  and  February  are 
chilly  and  disagreeable,  especially  as  the  ordinary 
house  is  not  very  well  heated.  One  sits  beside  the 
fireplace  and  yet  shivers.  In  the  region  of  Cal¬ 
cutta,  on  the  other  hand,  these  months  are  de¬ 
lightful.  The  air  is  soft  and  balmy  like  an  Ameri¬ 
can  day  in  IMay.  But  about  the  first  of  March, 
even  in  North  India,  the  hot  weather  begins.  As 
the  weeks  go  by,  the  heat  from  the  sun  becomes 


A  ].AND  OF  MANY  FACES 


19 


SO  intense  that  you  could  almost  cook  an  egg  on  a 
stone  doorstei).  In  the  middle  of  the  day,  during 
this  season,  few  people  try  to  do  any  work  or  even 
go  out  of  doors.  The  foreigners  and  those  natives 
who  can  afford  it  flee  for  refuge  to  the  mountains. 
By  the  first  of  June  this  hurning  tropical  sunshine 
has  heated  the  entire  land  like  a  furnace,  and,  as 
a  result,  a  moisture-laden  landward  wind  begins 
to  blow  all  over  India.  This  wind  is  called  the 
monsoon.  It  strikes  the  icy  slopes  of  the  Him¬ 
alayas,  and,  circling  back,  it  pours  its  floods  of 
waters  on  their  slopes  and  on  the  idains  which  lie 
at  their  feet.  The  rain  comes  down  in  torrents. 
For  three  months  the  rainy  season  continues  all 
across  the  northern  part  of  the  country.  AVhat  is 
said  to  be  the  wettest  spot  in  the  world  is  to  be 
found  in  Cherrapunji,  in  the  hills  of  Assam,  where 
there  is  an  annual  rainfall  of  458  inches. 

Now  put  all  these  things  together:  the  hot 
climate,  the  great  snow-capped  mountain  wall  to 
the  north,  and  the  enormous  rainfall  along  its 
southern  slopes,  and  you  may  easily  infer  one 
more  fact  of  geography — that  is,  a  great  river, 
south  of  the  Himalayas.  And  if  you  will  look 
again  at  the  map,  you  will  indeed  find  the  great 
Ganges  Kiver  flowing  from  west  to  east  across 
northern  India. 

The  Ganges  is  one  of  the  great  rivers  of  the 
world.  The  plain  across  which  it  flows  is  com¬ 
posed  of  soil  which,  during  long  ages,  the  river 


20 


THE  WONDERLAND  OF  INDIA 


lias  washed  down  from  the  mountains.  All 
through  the  dry  season  its  water  is  carried  by 
means  of  irrigation  canals  to  the  farms  along  its 
banks.  It  is  not  strange  that  to  the  Hindus  it  is  a 
sacred  river.  They  worship  Mother  Gunga,  as 
they  call  her,  and  bring  her  offerings. 

It  is  this  great  fertile  river  valley  wdiich  ex¬ 
plains  why,  in  India,  many  people  of  many  races 
and  languages  jostle  each  other  on  the  streets. 
Great  rivers  have  always  been  magnets,  drawing 
people  to  settle  along  their  banks.  And  India, 
with  her  fertile  Ganges  valley,  has  been  one  of  the 
most  powerful  of  such  magnets.  It  drew  even 
Columbus,  for  it  was  in  search  of  a  shorter  route 
to  this  land  that  he  started  on  the  voyage  which 
led  to  the  discovery  of  America.  Sometimes  men 
have  dreamed  of  finding  gold,  silver,  and  precious 
stones  in  India;  but  the  real  wealth  of  the  land 
has  always  been  her  broad  and  fertile  plains. 

India’s  history  has  been  one  long  record  of  in¬ 
vasions.  The  first  of  these  known  to  history  was 
that  of  the  Aryans.  Then,  in  the  fourth  century 
before  Christ,  came  the  Greeks  under  Alexander 
the  Great.  Although  not  many  Greeks  stayed  in 
India  after  Alexander’s  death,  there  are  still  ruins 
of  Greek  buildings  to  he  seen  in  northern  India, 
and  India’s  mothers  still  frighten  their  children 
when  they  are  naughty  by  saying,  ‘Hskander 
(Alexander)  will  get  you!” 

The  most  important  wave  of  invasion  after 


A  LAND  OF  MAXY  RACES 


21 


Alexander  began  about  five  Imndred  years  before 
Columluis  discovered  America.  On  the  northwest¬ 
ern  border  of  China  there  lived  a  wild  and  bar¬ 
barous  people  called  the  ]\Iongols.  In  the  course 

of  time  thev  were  converted  to  the  Mohammedan 

%/ 

religion.  By  race  they  were  related  to  the  Turks. 
Driven  by  the  same  need  of  food  as  the  early 
Aryans,  they  also  began  a  series  of  raids  to  the 
west  and  south.  One  group  of  them  swept  into 
Europe,  and  came  near  overrunning  the  whole 
area.  They  did  conquer  large  parts  of  Eastern 
Europe,  and  their  descendants  are  living  in  Hun¬ 
gary  and  in  other  European  countries  today. 
Other  groups  of  these  Mongols  crossed  the  passes 
of  the  Himalayas  into  India.  At  first  they  made 
only  raids  and  went  home  with  the  loot  which  they 
had  stolen.  Then,  of  course,  other  Mongol  armies 
set  out,  determined  to  get  their  share.  And  their 
Persian  neighbors  also  made  some  trips  to  the 
rich  land  beyond  the  mountains. 

For  centuries  the  people  of  India  lived  in  con¬ 
stant  terror  of  these  Mongol  raids.  At  length,  one 
Mongol  army  decided  to  stay  in  India,  and  it  set¬ 
tled  down  on  the  land  which  it  had  conquered. 
After  several  generations  of  fighting  they  had  be¬ 
come  so  powerful  that  one  of  their  kings,  Akbar, 
was  able  to  extend  his  sway  over  almost  the  whole 
of  India.  He  and  his  empire  descendants  are  re¬ 
ferred  to  in  history  as  “Moguls,”  that  is  the  Mon¬ 
gol  emperors,  but  he  is  known  as  the  “Great 


22 


THE  WONDERLAND  OF  INDIA 


Mogul.”  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  reign 
of  Queen  Elizabeth  of  England  and  of  Akbar  cov¬ 
ered  almost  the  same  period  of  years. 

Akbar,  therefore,  lived  in  the  century  following 
Columbus.  He  built  an  enormous  fort  at  Agra, 
so  complete  that  the  whole  city  could  be  besieged 
for  three  years  Avithout  being  forced  to  surrender. 
The  ruins  of  the  fort,  including  the  great  public 
audience  hall  Avhere  every  morning  Akbar  held 
court,  may  still  be  seen.  Anyone  who  wanted  jus¬ 
tice  could  go  to  this  court  and  have  his  case  de¬ 
cided  by  the  Emperor.  He  was  a  lover  of  poetry, 
science,  and  art,  and  his  closest  friends  were  great 
scholars.  He  sincerely  tried  to  help  the  people 
of  India. 

Another  great  Mogul  emperor  was  Akbar ’s 
grandson,  Shah  Jehan.  Near  the  shores  of  the 
Jumna  ri^mr,  which  flows  into  the  Ganges,  this 
ruler  had  erected  a  Avonderful  building,  Avhich  still 
stands  in  all  its  loAmliness,  and  Avhich  is  consid¬ 
ered,  even  yet,  the  most  beautiful  example  of  arch¬ 
itecture  in  all  the  Avorld.  It  has  a  real  story.  The 
emperor  had  a  beautiful  Avife,  Mumtaz-i-Mahal, 
that  is,  ‘Hhe  pride  of  the  palace,”  to  Avhom  he 
Avas  cleAmted.  “Promise  me,”  she  begged  of  him 
when  she  Avas  dying,  “that  you  Avill  build  me  the 
most  beautiful  tomb  in  the  Avorld,”  and  Shah 
Jehan  promised.  The  plans  for  the  tomb  came  to 
the  Emperor,  so  the  story  goes,  in  a  dream.  The 
marble  and  other  materials  for  it  were  brought 


•24 


THE  WOXDERLAXI)  OF  TXDIA 


from  all  parts  of  India,  and  it  took  twenty  tlion- 
sand  workmen  twenty-one  years  to  l)uild  it.  Trav¬ 
elers  from  all  countries  visit  it  every  year.  It  is 
constructed  entirely  of  white  marble.  In  places, 
the  marble  is  carved  into  designs  so  like  delicate 
lace  work  that  visitors  almost  always  insist  on 
touching  it  before  they  can  believe  that  it  is  ma  le 
of  stone.  The  interior  is  inlaid  with  beautiful 
and  expensive  stones,  agate,  la})is  lazuli,  and  car- 
nelian.  It  is  called  the  Taj  ]\Iahal. 

Today,  Mohammedans,  many  of  them  descended 
from  the  soldiers  of  Akbar,  may  he  seen  in  all 
l)arts  of  India.  More  of  them  live  in  the  north¬ 
west,  however,  than  elsewhere.  To  some  extent 
they  have  adopted  Hindu  customs ;  hut  they  do  not 
worship  idols.  ‘‘There  is  only  one  God,”  they 
say,  ‘‘and  he  is  Allah,  and  Mohammed  is  his 
prophet.” 

^Vll  of  the  early  invaders  of  India,  down  to  the 
time  of  the  IMongols,  marched  down  from  the 
north  over  the  mountain  passes.  Then  came  the 
time  when  men  had  become  masters  of  the  ocean. 
Even  before  Columlms  discovered  America,  a 
Portuguese  sailor  named  Vasco  de  Gama  had 
sailed  around  the  Gape  of  Good  Hope,  the  south¬ 
ern  tip  of  Africa,  in  a  tiny  sailing  vessel  and,  after 
many  tiresome  months,  landed  at  Calicut,  in 
South  India,  the  place  from  which  calico  got  its 
name.  He  brought  hack  with  him  a  rich  caryo  of 
spices  and  wonderful  stories  of  the  wealth  of  that 


A  LAND  OF  MANY  IIACFS 


25 


far-away  land.  From  that  time  on  it  was  by  way 
of  the  sea,  rather  than  the  mountains,  that  traders 
and  explorers  entered  India  in  search  of  gold. 
Soon  there  were  Dutch,  French,  and  English  set¬ 
tlements  at  various  places  on  the  Indian  coast.  It 
never  occurred  to  these  fortune  hunters  that  the 
natives  of  India  had  any  rights  or  that  the  teacli- 
ings  of  Jesus  should  govern  their  relations  with 
the  peOjJe  of  foreign  countries.  Indeed,  we  are 
only  heginning’  to  learn  that  lesson  now.  The 
English  settlers  in  India,  however,  seemed  to  un¬ 
derstand  better  than  those  of  other  Euro])ean 
countries  that  it  would  be  to  their  ovm  advantage 
to  treat  the  natives  with  a  certain  degree  of  kind¬ 
ness  and  justice.  So  when  the  white  traders  of 
different  nationalities  began  to  be  jealous  and  to 
fight  one  another,  the  English  were  more  success¬ 
ful  than  any  others  in  gaining  native  support.  By 
the  year  1857  a  great  part  of  India  was  governed 
directly  or  indirectly  by  the  English  through  a 
corporation  called  the  East  India  Company. 

In  that  year,  however,  there  occurred  a  great 
mutiny,  later  to  be  known  as  the  Sep-oy  Bebellion. 
One  Sunday  while  the  British  trooi)S  at  Meerut 
were  at  church,  unarmed,  they  were  fired  upon 
by  the  sepoys,  the  native  soldiers.  For  months 
after,  in  many  parts  of  India,  no  white  man’s  life 
was  safe.  In  Delhi,  Cawnpore,  Lucknow  and 
other  cities,  the  English  were  besieged.  Delhi 
and  Cawnpore  were  captured,  but  Lucknow  held 


20 


THE  WONDERLAND  OF  INDIA 


out.  Troops  from  other  parts  of  India  were  sent 
to  the  rescue  as  soon  as  possible,  but  it  was  many 
months  before  help  came.  Day  after  day,  in  the 
hot  sun,  the  enemy  attacked.  It  was  difficult  for 
the  English  to  get  to  their  only  well,  and  so  there 
was  little  water  for  the  thirsty  and  wounded.  Still 
they  held  out.  One  day  a  little  Scotch  girl,  Jessie 
Campbell,  cried  out,  “The  bagpipes!  Dinna  ye 
hear  the  bagpipes!”  Everyone  listened,  but  all 
shook  their  heads.  Finally,  faint  and  clear,  came 
the  sound  of  bagpipes  playing,  “The  Campbells 
are  coming,  hurrah,  hurrah!”  And  they  knew 
they  were  saved. 

After  the  mutiny  was  quelled,  the  government 
of  India  was  taken  from  the  East  India  Company 
and  ])laced  directly  under  the  British  crown. 
While  they  themselves  admit  they  have  made 
many  blunders,  the  British  have  done  much  for 
India.  They  have  built  railroads  so  that  one  may 
travel  right  through  tiger  jungles  liy  train.  Where 
formerly  the  peojile  of  different  castes  were 
widely  separated,  today  in  the  third-class  car¬ 
riages  are  huddled  crowds  of  people  from  all  parts 
of  India,  speaking  many  different  languages. 
Even  Brahmans  and  outcastes  sit  in  the  same  sec¬ 
tion,  and  the  Brahman  does  not  stop  to  question 
if  he  is  losing  his  caste.  In  the  train,  at  least, 
caste  is  forgotten. 

Before  the  British  estalJished  post-office  and 
telegraph  systems  India  was  largely  cut  off,  not 


A  LAND  OF  MANY  RACES 


27 


only  from  the  rest  of  the  world,  but  one  section 
of  her  owm  country  could  only  rarely  communicate 
with  another  section.  Now,  however,  messages 
are  sent  to  the  tiniest,  most  distant  village. 

i\Iotor  buses,  too,  now  run  along  country  roads, 
and  there  is  likely  to  be  a  greater  thrill  riding  in 
them  than  even  our  western  bandits  could  provide. 
Not  long  ago  one  of  these  buses  was  making  a 
trip  when  the  driver  suddenly  noticed,  directly  in 
front  of  him  and  not  many  yards  away,  a  tiger 
crouched  ready  to  spring.  He  honked  his 
horn  as  loud  and  as  fiercely  as  he  possibly 
could,  hoping  to  frighten  the  beast,  but  with  a 
spring,  the  tiger  leaped  onto  the  radiator  of  the 
on-coming  machine  and,  with  one  stroke  of  his 
mighty  paw,  smashed  in  the  glass  windshield. 
But  the  driver  had  put  on  speed  and,  as  the  car 
swerved  with  the  impact,  the  great  animal  fell 
off  and  was  crushed  to  death  under  the  wheels. 

There  are  waterworks,  too,  due  to  the  British, 
great  irrigation  canals,  and,  of  course,  bridges 
over  the  rivers.  The  Brahmans  laughed  when  the 
great  bridge  over  the  Ganges  at  Benares  was 
started.  “What!  Harness  Mother  Gunga  1”  they 
said.  At  first  they  only  jeered  and  laughed,  but 
then,  incensed  l)y  what  they  considered  sacrilege, 
angry  mobs  gathered  and  burned  the  build¬ 
ings  of  the  l)ridge  builders  and  tried  to  Imrn  the 
bridge  itself.  That  was  in  1904.  Today  when  a 
train  approaches  the  bridge,  someone  cries : 


28 


THE  WONDERLAND  OE  INDIA 


“Mother  Guiiga!”  Tlie  Jliiidiis  rush  to  the  win¬ 
dows.  Some  throw  in  money,  some  count  their 
rosaries,  others  pray.  Meanwhile,  the  train  rushes 
on,  leaving-  the  river  far  Ijehind,  and  the  Hindus 
sit  back  comfortably  and  perhaps  start  to  gossip 
about  the  latest  street-car  some  “crazy”  man  says 
he  saw  in  Cawnpore.  “Arrah,  a  cart  that  goes 
along  without  any  horse,  or  any  ‘jiuff,  puff’  (loco¬ 
motive)  and  that  stops  at  every  corner.”  Ilis 
hearers  shake  their  heads  and  smoke.  “  Who 
knows!”  they  say. 

Such  is  India,  today.  Hindu,  Mohammedan, 
Christian;  Aryan,  IMongolian,  Englishman;  all  live 
together — yet  seiiarate.  And  the  distinctions  of 
caste  are  even  more  rigid  and  impossible  than 
those  of  race,  language,  or  religion.  Can  such  a 
country  ever  become  a  land  of  neighbors,  in  the 
sense  of  the  good  Samaritan  who  had  pity  on  the 
vrounded  man  ?  Can  it  ever  be  ruled  l)y  the  spirit 
of  brotherhood  ?  Onb"  when  the  King  of  Broth¬ 
erly  Love  enters  the  land  to  stay. 


CHAPTER  THREE 


Everyday  India 

Hoav  that  we  have  learned  something  of  the 
history  of  India,  let  ns  go  back  for  another  visit 
to  the  home  of  Sonika  and  Rama. 

We  know  already,  of  course,  that  they  live  in  a 
village.  Blit  do  wo  know  that  India  is  a  land  of 
villages!  There  are  more  than  700,000  of  them. 
All  around  each  village  are  the  fields  which  the 
people  go  out  to  till.  Until  recent  times  it  would 
t.ave  been  dangerous  for  Indian  farmers  to  live 
in  separate  houses  as  in  America.  There  were 
too  many  robbers.  Even  today,  a  Hindu  farmer 
is  afraid  to  live  alone  with  his  family  in  an  iso¬ 
lated  house.  xVnd  even  if  there  were  no  robbers, 
there  are,  in  many  places,  dangerous  wild  beasts, 
such  as  man-eating  tigers.  But  while  robbers  and 
tigers  are  real  enemies  in  open  places,  the  Indians 
fear  them  almost  less  than  the  “demons”  which 
are  supposed  to  be  everywhere,  even  in  the  vil¬ 
lages.  Because  of  their  ignorance  and  supersti¬ 
tion  about  demons,  the  people  build  their  houses 
close  together. 

The  house  where  Sonika  and  Rama  were  born 
is  made  chiefly  of  mud,  with  bamboo  poles  for 
rafters,  and  a  thatched  roof.  The  bare  ground  is 
the  floor.  There  are  no  windows,  or  very  few, 
and  only  one  door.  Large  granaries,  built  of 

20 


30 


THE  WONDERLAND  OF  INDIA 


dried  mud,  may  serve  as  partitions  between  rooms. 
The  women  of  the  family  have  one  end  of  the 
house  for  their  sleeping  place.  The  most  impor¬ 
tant  room  is  the  kitchen.  It  is  not  only  the  place 
where  food  is  prepared,  but  also  a  kind  of  family 
chapel,  for  it  is  in  the  kitchen  that  the  people  keep 
their  shrine  and  the  image  of  their  god,  which  is 
often  only  an  oddly-shaped  stone.  This  shrine  is 
kept  decorated  with  garlands  of  marigolds  and 
near  it  there  is  always  a  tulsi  plant,  which  is  con¬ 
sidered  sacred.  The  reason  for  this  is  that,  ac¬ 
cording  to  Indian  mythology,  one  wife  of  the  god 
Krishna  was  such  a  pattern  of  all  that  a  girl  or 
woman  should  be  that  she  was  changed  into  a  tulsi 
plant.  This  })lant  is  kept  in  every  Hindu  home  to 
remind  little  sister  how  she  should  behave. 

Near  the  shrine  are  the  family  water-pots.  In 
the  Hindu  religion  it  is  water  more  than  anything 
else  which  is  supposed  to  be  either  ‘‘defiled”  or 
“pure.”  Dry  food,  such  as  flour,  sugar  or  rice, 
a  Hindu  will  take  from  anyone,  no  matter  what 
his  caste  may  be,  but  rice  cooked  in  water  or  any 
moist  food  he  will  not  touch  if  someone  of  a  lower 
caste  has  been  near  it.  So  it  is  especially  neces¬ 
sary  to  keep  the  water-pots  safe  from  “defile¬ 
ment.  ’  ’  These  big  earthenware  pots  are  kept  filled 
by  the  women  and  girls.  There  is,  of  course,  no 
running  water  in  the  house,  not  even  a  pump  in 
the  back-yard.  There  is  generally  only  one  well 
to  a  village,  and  this  is  fre(iuently  a  long  distance 


EVERYDAY  INDIA 


31 


away.  It  takes  a  good  many  trips  to  draw  water 
for  a  large  family. 

Not  far  from  the  water-pots  is  a  low  fireplace 
made  of  bricks,  where  the  food  is  cooked.  In  most 
l)arts  of  India  coal  or  wood  or  charcoal  are  too 
expensive  for  poor  people  to  use.  So  one  of  the 
main  chores  every  day  for  the  boys  and  girls  is 
to  gather  every  little  twig  and  chip  which  they 
can  pick  np  under  the  trees  and  along  the  sides 
of  the  road.  The  chief  fuel  is  dried  cow  dung 
mixed  with  straw.  Inasmuch  as  there  is  no  chim¬ 
ney  to  the  fireplace,  whenever  cooking  is  l)eing 
done,  the  house  is  filled  with  smoke.  Almost 
everything  in  a  Hindu  house  smells  and  tastes, 
to  a  certain  extent,  of  smoke. 

There  is  very  little  furniture  in  a  Hindu  house 
— no  chairs  or  tables,  and  only  rude  rope-strung 
beds,  or  charpoys.  In  low-caste  homes  even  these 
are  often  missing,  the  people  simply  lying  down 
wherever  they  choose,  wrapped  up  in  a  rug,  if 
one  is  needed.  For  what  little  light  is  needed 
after  sunset,  there  is  a  saucer  of  oil,  with  a  string 
lying  over  the  edge  for  a  wick.  During  the  day 
this  lamp  is  kept  in  a  niche  in  the  wall.  Such  a 
house  would  seem  bare  in  America,  but  there 
would  not  1)6  room  in  an  Indian  home  for  all  our 
tables  and  chairs  and  other  furniture — there  are 
too  many  people. 

An  Indian  family  consists  not  merely  of  father, 
mother,  and  children;  but  there  are  also  many 


32 


THE  WONDERLAND  OF  INDIA 


uncles  and  aunts  and  cousins.  AViien  a  Hindu  is 
married,  instead  of  going  house  hunting,  he  al¬ 
ways  brings  his  wife  back  to  his  own  old  home 
where  he  himself  was  born  and  brought  up.  If 
the  family  in  time  becomes  too  large  for  the 


Oil  I.cr  chr.rpci,  tins  little  Indian  girl  dreams  by  night  as  well 

as  jilays  I'v  d  ly. 


house,  additions  are  Imilt  on.  There  are  some 
villages  in  India  which  are  made  up  entirely  of 
one  great  house  inhabited  by  one  of  these  large 
Hindu  ‘‘families.”  There  is  no  danger  that  tlie 
children  will  be  lonesome,  for  besides  all  tlie 
cousins,  there  are  the  cow,  the  oxen,  the  goat,  and 
the  chickens,  all  of  which  sleep  at  night  in  the 
courtyard. 

AVhen  mealtime  comes,  the  children  spread  out 
their  lianls  and  into  them  their  motlier  puts  an 


EVERYDAY  INDIA 


33 


eartlieinvare  l)owl  or  perhaps  only  a  largo  green 
leaf.  On  this  leaf  she  pours  some  kind  of  cereal, 
sometimes  rice,  but  more  often  millet,  which  is  a 
coarse  grain,  cheaper  than  rice  and  seldom  grown 
in  America.  On  top  of  this  cereal  the  mother 
pours  some  curry,  a  sauce  made  of  pepper  and 
other  hot-tasting  herlis.  That  is  the  dinner,  nine 
dinners  out  of  ten,  of  a  boy  in  a  jmor  family  in 
India  eveiy  day,  not  only  this  year,  hut  next  year 
and  the  year  after  that.  There  are,  of  course, 
other  kinds  of  food,  es])ecially  for  those  who  can 
afford  to  pay  for  them.  Sometimes  there  are 
cakes  made  of  meal  and  baked  over  the  fire.  For 
wheat-cakes,  called  chappaffis,  the  mother  grinds 
the  wheat  in  a  stone  mill  just  like  the  hand-mills 
of  Bible  times.  Sometimes  a  family  has  beans  or 
peas  for  dinner  or  soup  made  from  them.  They 
also  have  milk,  Init  Indian  cows  do  not  give  very 
much,  as  compared  with  American  cows.  Poor 
l)eople  generally  have  to  sell  what  little  milk  they 
get,  or  butter  made  from  it,  in  order  to  get  money 
for  other  things.  Clarified  butter,  or  rjhee^  is  con¬ 
sidered  a  great  delicacy  in  India. 

Once  in  a  great  while  a  child  may  get  a  taste 
of  meat.  High-caste  Hindus,  however,  are  strict 
vegetarians  and  never  touch  meat  of  any  kind. 
But  low-caste  people  are  glad  to  eat  most  kinds 
of  meat  when  they  can  afford  it,  which  is  very 
seldom. 

Dinner  in  a  Hindu  home  is  generally  in  the 


34 


THE  WONDERLAND  OF  INDIA 


middle  of  the  day.  There  is  ordinarily  no  break¬ 
fast  and  no  siii)per.  One  is  lucky  to  get  a  dinner. 
AVhen  dinner  time  comes,  a  rather  solemn  religious 
ceremony  takes  place.  First  the  members  of  the 
family  wash  themselves  according  to  a  certain 
ritual,  and  then  they  offer  some  of  the  food  to  the 
household  god.  Then  each  man  and  boy  takes  his 
plantain  leaf,  or  his  earthenware  dish  filled  with 
rice  or  millet,  and  sits  down  on  the  floor  with  his 
back  to  the  others  and  eats  in  silence.  It  would 
seem  unsociable  to  us.  Still  more  unsociable  is 
the  custom  of  having  the  women  wait  until  all  the 
men  have  finished.  No  Indian  woman,  except  one 
here  and  there  in  a  family  that  is  giving  up  the 
old  customs,  ever  eats  with  her  husband.  It  seems 
very  pitiful  that  what  should  be  the  happiest  time 
in  a  family’s  day,  that  is,  dinner  time,  should  be 
so  siioiled  for  them  by  useless  and  unjust  religious 
rules. 

The  day’s  work  in  most  Hindu  families  begins 
at  dawn.  During  the  heat  of  the  day  everybody 
rests.  Then  along  toward  evening  there  is  more 
work  to  do.  The  children  liegin  to  help  around 
the  house  very  early  in  life.  The  girls  must  sweep 
the  dirt  floor,  with  a  broom  made  of  twigs.  The 
boys  must  drive  the  cows  and  the  goats  out  to  the 
jungle.  If  the  boy’s  father  is  a  carpenter  or  a 
weaver  or  a  blacksmith,  or  belongs  to  any  special 
trade,  he  soon  begins  to  hel]i  at  that  trade. 

The  members  of  each  trade  form  a  caste  and 


i 

©  U .  h’.  Fcnjcr,  Luliore,  InOia 


^^'ithin  tlieir  own  dooryards,  workers  in  brass  liainmer  out  by 
hand  pots  and  kettles  and  most  of  the  dishes  used  in  an  Indian 
household. 


30 


THP]  W  ONDERLAND  OF  INDIA 


live  together.  In  the  towns  yon  will  find  one 
street  called  the  WTavers’  street,  another  called 
the  blacksmiths’  street,  and  so  on.  Or  wdiole  vil¬ 
lages  may  be  given  over  to  some  special  trade. 
Sometimes  before  one  enters  a  village,  one  can 
tell  ])y  the  smell  (as  in  the  case  of  the  leather 
’workers)  what  trade  it  belongs  to.  Most  of  the 
’work  in  these  trades  is  done  in  the  homes  of  the 
peo^fie,  rather  than  in  special  shops.  The  car- 
l)enter  or  the  farmer  has  his  tools,  the  blacksmith 
has  Ids  iron,  the  coppersmith  his  copper,  or  the 
potter  his  clay,  in  the  same  room  wdiere  he  sleeps. 
The  children  watch  him  as  he  ’works.  By-aiid-hy, 
wdien  a  boy  is  ten  or  eleven  years  old,  he  will 
begin  to  learn  his  father’s  trade. 

The  chief  industry  of  India  is  farming.  Many 
different  kinds  of  crops  are  raised.  Beside  the 
grain  crops,  such  as  rice,  ’wheat,  and  millet,  India 
produces  great  quantities  of  sugar,  tea,  cotton, 
and  jute.  Practically  all  of  our  gunny  sacks  are 
made  from  jute  that  wms  raised  in  India.  AYhat- 
ever  tlie  crop  may  he,  if  the  hoy’s  father  is  a 
farmer,  he  ’svill  soon  he  doing  some  of  the  wmrk. 
And  farm  ’work  in  India  is  very  hard  v.’ork  indeed. 
Until  recently  no  modern  agricultural  maciunery 
was  used.  A  farmer’s  tools  consisted  of  a  small 
’^vooden  ])low  ’^vith  a  sharp  point  for  a  harrow, 
wdiich  only  just  scratched  the  surface  of  the  soil, 
a  sickle,  a  mattock,  or  heavy  hoe,  a  wooden  fork, 
and  a  club  for  pounding  the  hard  lumps  in  the 


EVERYDAY  INDIA 


37 


soil.  Very  few  farmers  know  aiiytliing  about  otber 
tools  or  machinery.  In  some  parts  of  the  country 
the  fields  are  watered  l)y  irrigating’  ditches  during 
the  dry  season.  The  water  is  ])umpe,l  from  the 
reservoirs  by  oxen  on  treadmills.  One  of  the 
most  important  of  a  small  boy’s  chores  in  such 
districts  is  to  keep  the  oxen  moving  and  the  pump 
working. 

And  how  about  games!  How  do  Sonika  and 
liama  and  the  others  play!  Indian  children  have 
a  natural  love  of  play,  just  like  the  boys  and  girls 
of  America.  Indeed,  two  famous  indoor  games, 
parchesi  and  chess,  were  invented  in  India.  But 
alas,  there  is  so  much  work  to  be  done  that  many 
a  Hindu  child  scarcely  has  a  chance  to  learn  to 
play  at  all. 

Still,  Eaina  knows  how  to  fiy  a  kite.  And  he 
probably  can  make  his  kite  “fight”  another  boy’s. 
He  will  rub  his  string  with  a  mixture  of  clay  and 
sand,  and  then  when  the  “fight”  is  on,  he  will  work 
his  kite  into  such  a  position  that  he  can  saw  the 
other  boy’s  string  with  his  own,  until  it  breaks 
and  the  other  kite  soars  away  and  is  lost. 

The  family  goat  is  often  a  great  pet  with  the 
children.  Sonika  has  her  mud  dolls,  and 
slie  also  gets  much  pleasure  from  jingling  her 
ornaments.  Indian  girls  have  many  trinkets, 
although  usually  not  until  they  are  married. 
Even  the  poorest  have  rings  and  liracelets  of  pew¬ 
ter  or  brass.  Of  course  the  wealthy  people  have 


38 


THE  WONDERLAND  OF  INDIA 


silver  and  gold  ornaments.  Not  only  do  the 
women  and  girls  wear  rings  and  bracelets,  but 
anklets  and  toe-rings  and  earrings  galore.  Wher¬ 
ever  there  is  a  chance  to  hang  a  bit  of  ornament, 
they  love  to  put  it  on. 

The  happiest  times  in  India  are  special  celebra¬ 
tions  of  one  kind  or  another.  One  of  these  is  the 
ceremony  of  putting  on  the  sacred  cord.  If  the 
little  Hindu  brother  belongs  to  one  of  the  upper 
castes,  he  receives  from  his  religious  teacher,  some 
time  after  his  fifth  year,  the  sacred  cord  which 
he  wears  for  the  rest  of  his  life.  It  consists  usu¬ 
ally  of  three  coiled  strands  and  is  worn  over  the 
left  shoulder  and  under  the  right  arm.  Before 
that  time  he  is  considered  as  just  a  child  and  eats 
and  sleeps  with  his  mother.  After  the  cord  cere¬ 
mony,  he  is  a  man.  If  a  man’s  cord  breaks,  he 
dares  not  speak  or  scarcely  breathe  until  another 
is  put  on ;  so  sacred  is  it  considered.  The  exact 
age  selected  for  putting  on  the  sacred  cord  de¬ 
pends  upon  the  boy’s  horoscope.  The  ceremony 
is  continued  for  several  days,  and  the  occasion  is 
made  a  very  joyful  one.  There  are  feasts  to  which 
friends  are  invited.  Even  poor,  neglected  little 
sister  receives  a  sweetmeat  while  the  priest  is 
going  through  the  many  ceremonies  in  honor  of 
brother’s  having  now  become  a  man. 

Weddings  also  are  festive  occasions.  To  us  the 
marriage  customs  of  the  country  seem  very  un- 


EVERYDAY  INDIA 


39 


reasonable  and  often  cruel.  Young  people  in  India 
are  not  allowed  to  choose  each  other  for  husband 
and  wife.  The  niatch-making  is  always  done  by 
the  fathers  with  the  help  of  the  village  barber, 
who,  because  of  his  occupation,  knows  everybody. 
The  bride  and  groom  seldom  see  each  other  until 
after  they  are  married !  The  worst  of  these  cus¬ 
toms  is  the  early  age  of  marriage,  especially  in  the 
case  of  the  girls.  It  is  considered  disgraceful 
for  a  girl  not  to  be  married  by  the  time  she  is 
twelve.  Little  Hindu  sister  has  very  little  reason 
for  gladness  on  the  dawn  of  her  wedding  day. 
Nevertheless,  the  wedding  itself  is  made  a  time  of 
as  much  happiness  as  possible.  The  picture  of 
Ganesh,  the  Hindu  god  of  good  luck,  is  painted  on 
the  doorway  of  the  groom’s  house.  For  five  days 
or  more  the  wedding  guests  are  feasted.  The 
fourth  day  is  considered  the  most  important. 
There  must  be  at  least  one  hundred  different  kinds 
of  food  for  that  day’s  feast.  Different  kinds  of 
pickles,  however,  may  count  as  different  foods. 
On  the  day  of  the  wedding  proper  there  is  a  pro¬ 
cession  to  the  bride’s  home.  The  bridegroom  goes 
first,  on  horseback,  dressed  in  his  best  clothes. 
After  him  there  usually  comes  a  band  composed 
of  banging  drums  and  wailing  flutes  and  some¬ 
times  a  bagpipe  or  two.  After  a  time,  they  return, 
bringing  the  bride  back  with  them  to  the  house  of 
the  bridegroom.  There  are  more  ceremonies,  and 


40 


TIIK  ^^■ONl)EPvLAND  OF  INDIA 


then  the  guests  go  home.  The  fun  is  over.  For 
many  a  little  child-bride  all  that  remains  is  a  life 
little  better  than  slavery. 

The  people  in  India  are  perhaps  by  nature  the 
most  religious  in  the  world.  Almost  every  act  in 
their  lives  is  connected  in  some  way  with  a  re¬ 
ligious  belief  or  ceremony.  The  early  Aryans 
lirought  with  them  their  own  system  of  beliefs  in 
gods  and  goddesses.  Among  them  were  wise  men 
who  saw  and  taught  that  there  is  really  only  one 
God,  whose  presence  is  in  all  life.  This  ol  1  Hindu 
teaching  may  be  found  in  their  ancient  sacred 
books  called  the  Vedas.  It  is  very  influential 
today  among  the  educated  classes.  The  religion 
of  the  common  people,  however,  is  a  mass  of  super¬ 
stitions  ;  giving  offerings  to  grinning,  hideous 
idols  and  charms  to  scare  away  the  demons.  In 
their  temples  they  do  not  have  weekly  religious 
services  like  those  in  our  churches.  But  on  holy 
days  they  go  to  their  temiiles  to  worship.  This  is 
done  mostly  by  the  men.  The  women  are  only  al¬ 
lowed  to  come  and  bring  gifts  to  the  god.  Every 
morning  the  priests  of  the  temple  have  to  awaken 
the  god  by  ringing  bells  or  clanging  cymlials.  Then 
they  are  supposed  to  bathe  him,  pour  melted  but¬ 
ter  over  him,  and  place  food  before  him.  When  a 
man  conies  to  worship,  the  priest  rings  the  bell 
to  make  sure  that  the  god  is  listening.  Then  the 
worshipper  makes  his  present  and  prays  for  what 
he  wants.  No  one  in  India  ever  goes  to  a  god 


The  water  in  front  of  this  Hindu  temple  is  a  sacred  pool  in 
which  people  bathe  as  a  part  of  their  worship.  The  temple  ele¬ 
phant  also  bathes  in  the  sacred  water. 


42 


THE  WONDERLAND  OF  INDIA 


without  a  present.  When  he  has  completed  his 
worship,  the  priest  marks  his  forehead  with  a  cer¬ 
tain  sign  so  that  all  the  world  may  know  that  he 
has  done  his  religious  duty.  In  the  evening  the 
priests  put  the  god  to  sleep  again. 

On  the  whole,  it  is  not  a  very  happy  life  that 
our  little  Hindu  brother  and  sister  lead.  The 
great  majority  of  boys  and  girls  grow  up  under 
the  dark  shadow  of  a  poverty  worse  than  anything 
we  know.  It  is  said  that  millions  of  Hindu  peas¬ 
ants  seldom  have  enough  to  eat,  even  in  years  of 
plenty.  When  the  famine  years  come,  their  suf¬ 
fering  is  pitiful. 

Beside  their  poverty,  the  people  of  India  suffer 
terribly  from  diseases.  They  know  nothing  of 
modern  sanitation.  We  have  seen  how  careful 
they  are  to  keep  their  water-pots  ceremonially 
clean;  would  that  they  knew  the  importance  of 
keeping  their  water  clean  instead  of  swarming 
with  disease  germs !  During  the  rainy  season 
malaria-bearing  mosquitoes  are  all  too  common. 
The  native  way  of  warding  off  an  epidemic  from 
a  village  is  to  put  a  saucer  of  milk  and  sugar  by 
the  roadside  with  a  few  silver  coins  in  the  bottom 
of  it.  It  is  thought  that  the  pestilence  demon  may 
find  it  and  be  appeased.  It  is  not  strange  that  the 
land  is  so  frequently  scourged  by  terrible  epi¬ 
demics  of  cholera  and  the  plague,  and  that  ma¬ 
laria,  smallpox,  and  typhoid  fever  are  always 
raging  somewhere  in  India. 


EVERYDAY  INDIA 


43 


Now  and  then  some  of  India’s  sons  have  had 
pity  on  their  brothers  and  have  tried  to  help  them. 
Al)ont  six  hundred  years  before  Christ  a  young 
Indian  prince  named  Gautama  grew  heartsick  at 
the  sight  of  so  much  misery  everywhere  and  fled 
from  his  luxurious  home  in  search  of  a  way  of 
peace  for  himself  and  others.  After  many  wan¬ 
derings,  there  came  to  him,  one  day,  like  a  light 
from  above,  the  idea  that  the  way  out  of  unhappi¬ 
ness  is  to  forget  one’s  self.  This  new  vision  of 
truth  he  set  himself  to  proclaim  to  men.  He  gath¬ 
ered  disciples  and  taught  them  what  he  called  the 
Eightfold  Path,  of  which  the  substance  was  to  re¬ 
nounce  all  selfish  pleasures,  to  abstain  from  all 
malice,  and  to  overcome  evil  with  good.  Thus  was 
founded  the  religion  which  came  to  be  known  as 
Gautama,  this  religion  was  spread  all  over  India 
Buddhism.  Some  two  or  three  centuries  after 
and  carried  to  other  countries  of  Asia  largely 
through  the  efforts  of  a  very  good  and  able  king 
named  Asoka.  This  man  is  notable  in  history  as 
one  of  the  few  kings  or  emperors  who  have  re¬ 
fused  to  be  a  military  conqueror  and  chose  rather 
to  rule  through  the  power  of  truth.  He  gave  large 
sums  to  Buddhist  teachers  and  missionaries  for 
the  spreading  of  the  new  doctrine.  He  founded 
public  parks,  hospitals,  and  schools.  He  also 
caused  wells  to  be  dug  and  shade  trees  to  be 
planted.  He  tried  to  civilize  the  wild  tribes  of 
central  India.  He  should  be  better  known  by  us 


44 


THE  WONDERLAND  OF  INDIA 


of  the  Western  world,  for  ho  was  really  one  of  the 
great  characters  of  histoiy. 

This  new  religion,  however,  was  not  popular 
with  the  rich  and  powerful.  It  made  little  of  caste, 
and  the  proud  Brahmans  opposed  it  for  that  rea¬ 
son.  In  the  course  of  time  its  teachers  were 
driven  from  the  country,  and  today  there  are  few 
Buddhists  in  India  proper.  The  large  majority 
of  Indian  children  probably  never  heard  of  Gau¬ 
tama  or  never  saw  a  Buddhist  priest.  The  old 
superstitions  and  the  selfish,  cruel  customs  came 
hack  again  and,  despite  the  advance  made  in  the 
past  hundred  years  by  Christianity,  they  still  pre¬ 
vail  in  large  measure. 

AVliat  India  needs  is  One  greater  than  Gautama 
to  lift  her  from  her  misery. 


CHAPTER  FOUR 


‘HCing  Jesus  Is  Come” 

For  days  Rama  and  Sonika  had  been  talking 
about  the  mela.  “Of  course  you’re  going,”  they 
said  to  Bob  and  Peggy.  “Everybody  goes  to  the 
mela!” 

Now  in  India  mclas  are  religions  festivals. 
People  attend  them  partly  for  fun  and  partly  to 
gain  favor  with  the  gods.  All  over  India  there  are 
sacred  places  where  these  melas  are  held  from 
time  to  time,  and  to  which  great  crowds  of  people 
come.  One  of  the  largest  is  held  in  the  winter  of 
each  year  at  Allahabad,  where  the  sacred  river 
Ganges  and  its  largest  tributary,  the  Jimma,  flow 
together.  To  bathe  there  at  the  time  of  the  mela 
is  to  receive,  so  the  people  think,  a  special  blessing 
from  “Mother  Gunga.”  Every  twelfth  year  the 
mela  held  at  this  place  is  thought  to  be  especially 
sacred,  and  millions  from  all  over  India  attend. 
It  is  estimated  that  in  1918  over  two  million  people 
were  in  or  by  the  river  at  one  time.  They  came 
on  foot,  by  ox-cart,  by  horse,  by  train.  A  regular 
city  is  always  laid  out  especially  for  these  crowds, 
and  it  has  to  be  carefully  policed,  for,  in  their 
eagerness  to  get  to  the  river,  riots  are  likely  to 
take  place. 

Boh  and  Peggy  could  scarcely  wait  for  the  long- 
anticii)ated  day  to  come.  Everybody  in  the  village 

45 


46 


THE  WONDERLAND  OF  INDIA 


Avlio  could  possibly  get  away  went, — some  on  foot, 
some  in  ox-carts. 

‘‘AVliy,  it’s  just  like  going  to  a  county  fair  back 
in  America!”  said  Peggy’s  mother,  who  had  not 
been  in  India  very  long  and  who  had  never  at¬ 
tended  a  mela. 


©  II.  R.  Feryer,  Lahore,  India 


The  merry-ffo-roiind  at  an  Indian  meUi  lias  a  clieerfnl  sqneak  and 
creak  that  is  as  effective  as  music  in  telling  hoys  and  girls  where 
it  may  he  found. 

The  roads  were  crowded  with  people,  laughing 
and  talking.  Everybody  seemed  to  be  having  a 
good  time,  and  yet  it  was  a  religious  festival  to 
which  they  were  going. 

The  nearer  they  got  to  the  village  where,  on  the 
banks  of  the  sacred  river,  the  mela  was  to  be  held, 
the  more  Bob  and  Peggy  felt  that  they  were  on 
their  way  to  a  circus.  AVithin  the  village  was  the 
sacred  shrine,  but  also  what  sights  and  sounds! 


“KING  JESUS  IS  COME” 


47 


There  were  peddlers  everywhere  selling  sweets 
and  toys.  Here  was  an  odd  looking  merry-go- 
round  made  of  rope  swings  which  hung  from  an 
iron  ring  whirled  by  hand  around  the  pole  in  the 
center.  There  was  the  queerest  looking  Ferris 
wheel  one  could  imagine,  made  of  wood  and  turned 
creakingly  by  hand. 

There  were  other  sights  totally  unlike  anything 
to  be  seen  in  America.  Again  and  again,  they 
came  upon  ‘‘holy  men,”  or  sadhus,  most  of  whom 
were  torturing  themselves  in  some  strange  way. 
Here  was  a  man  hanging  head  downward  over  a 
slow  fire.  There  was  another  man  who  had  held 
one  arm  above  his  head  for  so  long  that  it  had 
withered.  In  the  crowd  gathered  around  these 
men,  Peggy  spied  Rama.  “What  are  these  men 
doing,  Rama?”  she  asked,  going  up  to  him. 

“Why,  they  are  ‘holy  men.’  They  do  these 
things  to  get  merit  with  the  gods.  And  that  is  why 
we  come  to  the  ”  he  replied. 

By-and-by  Bob’s  father  and  mother  and  Peggy’s 
father  left  the  others.  The  two  children  and  Peg¬ 
gy’s  mother  wandered  about  among  the  crowd, 
watching  the  many  sights. 

Suddenly  they  heard  the  sound  of  music  and 
singing,  and  they  caught  something  in  the  words 
•about  Yisu. 

“Those  are  the  Isai-log  (the  Jesus  people)!” 
exclaimed  Rama,  who  had  joined  them  again. 
“Let’s  go  near  them.” 


48 


THE  WONDERLAND  OF  INDIA 


As  they  came  within  sight,  Peggy  exclaimed  ex¬ 
citedly:  ‘AVhy,  there’s  Uncle  John,  and  there’s 
Daddy  too!”  Sure  enough,  there  they  stood  in 
the  group  about  a  band  of  native  musicians. 
There  were  only  a  few  white  people,  but  there 


Indian  hymns  sung  to  Indian  music  played  on  Indian  instru¬ 
ments  hy  native  Christians  are  doing  much  toward  bringing  the 
people  to  know  and  to  love  Christ. 


were  a  number  of  the  brown  people  of  India,  sing¬ 
ing  Christian  songs  to  old  Hindu  airs  which  were 
being  played  on  instruments  curious  enough  to 
Western  eyes. 

After  a  time  the  music  ceased,  and  Bob’s  father 
began  to  speak.  He  told  the  iieople  about  the 
loving  Father  who  cared  for  them  all.  The  poor, 
tired,  work-worn  people  of  India  heard  of  One 
who  said,  ^‘Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labor  and 


“KIXG  JESUS  IS  COME” 


49 


are  lieavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  yon  rest.”  It 
is  almost  impossible  for  people  in  America  to 
know  how  that  must  sound  to  the  ]ieople  of  India, 
who  are  always,  always  seeking  rest, — and  seek¬ 
ing  it  in  vain, — not  only  rest  for  their  tired  bodies, 
but  rest  from  the  awful  superstitious  fears  under 
which  they  live.  Their  entire  religious  life  and 
even  their  social  life  is  a  quest  for  peace,  for  pro¬ 
tection  from  demons,  from  spells,  and  from  pun¬ 
ishments  which  they  believe  their  gods  are  send¬ 
ing  upon  them.  Into  this  life-long,  daily  fear, 
imagine  there  coming  in  calm,  even  tones,  “Come 
unto  me,  and  I  will  give  you  rest.” 

Into  this  strange  land  of  superstitions  and 
dreams,  of  ugliness  and  beauty,  Christianity  first 
came  many  centuries  ago  with  its  message  of  love. 
The  modern  Christian  movement  in  India,  how¬ 
ever,  may  be  said  to  have  begun  with  the  work  of 
four  great  ])ioneers — Ziegenbalg  and  Pliitschau, 
who  went  to  South  India  early  in  the  eighteenth 
century,  Schwartz  of  Tanjore,  who  began  his  work 
in  1750,  and  AVilliam  Carey,  who  landed  in  Cal¬ 
cutta  in  1793  and  who  is  often  called  “the  father 
of  the  modern  missionary  enterprise.” 

Carey,  born  in  England,  in  1761,  was  a  Baptist 
local  preacher  and,  while  making  shoes  for  a  liv¬ 
ing,  preached  the  gospel  as  the  main  interest  of 
his  life.  After  a  time  he  felt  that  he  must  go  to 
India  as  a  missionary.  Most  of  his  friends  scoffed 
at  and  ridiculed  him.  How  could  he  possibly  get 


50 


THE  WONDERLAND  OF  INDIA 


the  money  to  go?  they  asked;  and  when  he  got 
there,  how  could  he  preach  to  such  people  as  the 
Indians?  At  length,  however,  he  was  able  to  in¬ 
terest  enough  people  in  his  plans  so  that  he  raised 
his  passage  money,  and  he  and  his  wife  sailed  for 
India. 

The  East  India  Company  refused  to  let  him 
work  in  their  territory,  but  he  found  shelter  in 
the  Dutch  settlement  at  Sarampore.  To  support 
himself  and  his  family,  he  worked  at  first  as  su¬ 
perintendent  in  an  indigo  factory.  In  the  course 
of  five  years  he  had  learned  the  Bengali  language, 
had  travelled  through  the  two  hundred  villages 
of  the  district,  had  held  daily  religious  services 
for  the  thousand  workmen  in  the  factory,  and  had 
translated  the  New  Testament  into  the  Bengali 
language.  He  prepared  the  first  Bengali  diction¬ 
ary;  he  set  up  the  first  printing  press  in  India 
and  prepared  type  for  it  in  the  Bengali  alphabet; 
and  in  the  course  of  his  life  he  translated  the 
Bible  into  thirty-six  different  dialects.  The  Brit¬ 
ish  government  appointed  Mr.  Carey  professor  of 
Bengali,  Sanskrit,  and  Marathi  in  the  government 
college  in  Calcutta. 

Beside  his  regular  work  of  preaching  and  trans¬ 
lating,  this  great  missionary  pioneer  helped  to 
start  almost  every  kind  of  work  carried  on  today 
by  the  missionaries.  In  a  time  when  others  felt 
that  a  missionary  should  do  nothing  l)ut  preach, 
he  wrote  to  his  supporters  at  home:  ‘M  wish  you 


“KING  JESUS  IS  COME’ 


51 


could  send  me  a  few  instruments  of  husbandry; 
that  is,  scythes,  sickles,  plows,  wheels,  etc.,  and  an 
assortment  of  garden  and  flower  seeds  and  seeds 
of  fruit  trees.”  In  1800  he  formed  the  Agricul¬ 
tural  and  Horticultural  Society  of  India  before 
there  was  such  a  society  in  England.  Whatever 
would  help  people  to  better  lives,  he  considered 
a  part  of  his  work  as  a  missionary. 

Carey  tried  for  years  to  persuade  the  British 
government  to  make  a  law  forbidding  the  poor 
superstitious  Hindus  from  throwing  their  children 
into  the  Ganges  as  religious  offerings  and  also 
imtting  a  stop  to  suttee,  or  the  burning  of  widows 
on  the  funeral  pyres  of  their  husbands.  He  finally 
succeeded  in  getting  this  law  passed.  The  proc¬ 
lamation  which  forbade  suttee  was  sent  to  him  by 
the  government  to  translate  into  the  native  lan¬ 
guage  It  arrived  on  a  Sunday  just  as  he  was 
starting  for  church,  where  he  was  to  preach. 
Throwing  off  his  coat,  he  sent  another  man  to 
preach  and  set  to  work  on  the  translation.  “For,” 
said  he,  “the  delay  of  an  hour  may  mean  the  sac¬ 
rifice  of  many  a  widow.” 

The  work  started  by  Carey  was  followed  up 
with  great  energy  by  others.  All  the  great  de¬ 
nominations  of  Great  Britain  and  America  have 
sent  missionaries  to  India.  Churches  have  been 
built  in  every  part  of  the  country.  In  all  the  lead¬ 
ing  cities,  such  as  Calcutta,  Bombay,  Madras,  etc., 
there  are  large  native  churches  with  native  Indian 


52 


THE  WONDERLAND  OF  INDIA 


l)astors.  There  are  between  fifteen  and  twenty 
million  Protestant  native  Christians  in  India. 
What  is  more  important,  the  spirit  of  the  love  of 
Jesus  has  indeed  been  like  a  leaven  in  the  life  of 
the  people.  Many  of  the  most  prominent  native 
leaders  today,  even  though  not  calling  themselves 
Christians,  say  that  they  are  trying  to  follow  the 
teachings  of  Jesus. 

How  does  a  missionary  go  about  his  work  of 
showing  these  people  what  Jesus  Christ  might 
mean  to  them?  Like  Carey,  the  missionaries  to¬ 
day  use  many  and  various  methods.  It  is  quite 
easy  and  natural  for  a  missionary  to  gather  a 
crowd  around  him  at  a  mela,  for  the  people  are 
used  to  seeing  religious  or  “holy”  men  there. 
But  although  it  is  easy  to  gather  a  crowd,  it  is  not 
so  easy  to  win  their  attention.  Very  often  the 
people  talk  and  laugh  among  themselves  and  then 
wander  away.  But  again,  others  really  listen  to 
the  preacher’s  message,  and  sometimes  their 
hearts  are  touched.  Perhai)S  months  or  even  years 
after,  some  new  pupil  will  come  to  the  missionary 
school  or  ask  to  join  the  church,  and  it  will  he 
found  that  he  merely  heard  of  Christ  at  a  meJa, 
and  the  tiny  seed  took  root. 

Back  of  all  missionary  methods,  the  one  great 
instrument  is  kindness.  People  in  India  are  like 
people  anywhere  else.  They  may  not  always  un¬ 
derstand  simken  words,  l)ut  the  meaning  of  loving 
deeds  they  never  miss.  And  amid  the  liitter  hard- 


‘'KING  JESUS  IS  CO]\IE” 


53 


sliips  and  the  cruel  inherited  customs  of  India, 
the  lives  of  love  and  good-will  which  the  spirit  of 
Jesus  always  inspires,  shine  out  like  stars  in 


For  nearly  tlilrty-five  years  tliis  fakir  lias  performed  acts 
of  religious  devotion  by  sitting  on  his  lied  of  spikes.  The 
mark  on  his  forehead  and  on  those  of  the  men  about  him 
shows  that  they  are  worshippers  of  the  god  Shiv. 


the  night.  People  wonder  at  the  unselfish¬ 
ness  so  evident  in  the  lives  of  the  native  Chris¬ 
tians  and  the  missionaries  and  are  irresistibly 


54 


THE  WONDERLAND  OF  INDIA 


drawn  to  them  and  through  them  to  the  God  of 
Love. 

The  mela  was  over,  the  children  were  at  home, 
and  Boh’s  father  was  resting,  after  his  busy  day. 
“Tell  us  a  story.  Father,”  they  begged.  “Tell  us 
about  a  girl  this  time,”  added  Peggy. 

“Very  well,”  assented  Uncle  John,  “I  will  tell 
you  a  true  story  of  a  girl  named  Sita. 

“Sita  was  the  daughter  of  a  court  official,  a 
Brahman.  She  was  brought  up  to  eat  only  the 
finest  of  foods,  to  wear  beautiful  silks,  to  do  no 
work  of  any  kind  whatever.  Then  her  father, 
whose  pet  she  had  always  been,  died.  Her  family 
gave  her  in  marriage,  when  she  was  eleven  or 
twelve  years  old,  as  the  fourth  wife  of  an  impor¬ 
tant  official.  She  was  his  favorite  wife  and,  conse¬ 
quently,  the  other  wives  were  jealous  of  her.  They 
did  everything  they  could  to  make  her  life  miser¬ 
able.  AVhen  her  child  was  born  they  bribed  a 
priest  to  say  that  if  she  ever  saw  her  baby  it  would 
die,  so  the  little  boy  was  taken  away  from  her  im¬ 
mediately  after  it  was  born. 

“Then  the  older  women  poisoned  the  mind  of 
her  husband.  UVhat  a  wicked  woman  she  must 
have  been,’  they  said,  Gn  some  previous  life  if, 
now,  just  looking  at  her  boy  would  cause  its 
deatli!’  These  women  said  so  much  that,  after  a 
time,  Sita’s  husband  banished  her  to  the  home  of 
his  uncle,  where  she  was  treated  like  a  servant. 


55 


“KING  JESUS  IS  COME” 

beaten  till  she  was  black  and  blue,  and  subjected 
to  many  insults. 

“At  lengtli  she  ran  away.  Her  path  was  through 
dense  jungles,  and  at  night  she  climbed  high  trees 
to  be  safe  from  the  wild  animals— tigers,  bears, 
and  leopards.  Eemember  all  this  time’  that  Sita 
was  a  girl  just  like  any  girl  yon  know,  and  this 
haiipened  not  so  very  many  years  ago,  either.  At 
times  she  thought  she  was  being  pursued,  but 
somehow  she  avoided  people  and  struggled  on. 

“One  day  she  ran  into  a  kindly  man  who  told 
her  to  go  twenty  miles  farther  and  she  would  find 
some  strange  Isai  (Jesus)  people  who  would  care 
for  her.  Two  days  later  she  was  inquiring  at  the 
village  for  the  Isai  ])eople.  She  was  taken  to  the 
C'hristian  worker,  whose  wife  took  care  of  her  for 
two  days  while  she  slept  away  her  exhaustion. 

“Nobody  knew  what  to  do  with  Sita,  but  she 
l)egged  hard  to  stay.  ‘Never  before  have  I  met 
such  kindness,’  she  said.  ‘The  man  on  the  road 
told  me  that  the  Isai-log  were  always  kind.  I  want 
to  learn  to  be  an  Isai.  I  will  work,  I  will  do  any¬ 
thing  you  say,  only  let  me  stay.  ’ 

“An  elderly  Bible  womaiT  offered  to  keep  her, 
and  Sita,  who  was  now  about  fifteen  years  old,  a 
tall,  beautiful  girl,  started  to  learn  how  to  read 
and  write,  how  to  sew,  to  knit,  to  cook,  to  clean. 

1  “BilJe  women”  are  native  Indian  Christians  who  go  into  the 
homes  of  the  people  to  read  the  Bil)lc  and  teach  Cliristian 
ndigion. 


56 


THE  WONDERLAND  OF  INDIA 


Sometimes  slie  would  get  homesick  and  sad  won¬ 
dering  what  had  haiipened  to  her  little  baliy  hoy, 
but  she  stayed  on  with  the  missionaries.  Later 
she  went  to  a  training-school.  Today  she  is  a 
Bible  woman,  going  with  the  missionaries  on  their 
journeys  and  helping  to  tell  the  story  of  Jesus. 
Yet  always  she  is  praying  that  some  day  she  may 
go  back  to  her  own  people  and  find  her  little  boy 
and  tell  him  and  all  her  old  friends  the  message 
of  God’s  love.” 

Bob’s  father  went  on  to  tell  the  children  that 
when  Jesus  was  on  earth  his  greatest  success  was 
with  the  poor  and  despised  classes.  ‘  ‘  The  common 
people  heard  him  gladly.”  So  it  is  with  the  mis¬ 
sionaries — in  India.  Sita  was  a  Brahman  girl, 
and  there  are  many  like  her,  who  have  been  won 
by  the  love  of  Christ,  but  by  far  the  largest  num¬ 
ber  of  the  native  Christians  are  from  the  out- 
castes,  the  “untouchables,”  whom  India  has  al¬ 
ways  so  cruelly  oppressed.  When  the  Christian 
missionary  comes  among  them,  they  are  treated 
for  the  first  time  in  tlieir  lives  like  men  and 
women  and  are  led  to  see  that  through  Jesus 
Christ  they  may  even  rise  to  undreamed-of 
heights.  At  first  the  story  of  Christ  may  mean  lit¬ 
tle  to  them.  They  may  chatter  and  grin  while 
the  missionary  talks,  and  he  may  go  home  dis¬ 
couraged.  But  the  time  comes,  when,  perhaps, 
the  headman  of  a  neighboring  village  charges 
these  outcastes  with  stealing  a  goat  which  never 


“KING  JESUS  IS  COME” 


57 


existed.  Or  perhaps  the  money-lender  terrifies 
them  with  threats.  In  their  fear,  they  think  of 
the  missionary  and  go  to  him  wdth  their  story. 
Sometimes  he  is  able  to  help  them  in  one  way  or 
another.  The  next  time  he  preaches,  they  listen. 

‘^Let  me  tell  you  a  story  about  a  man  now,” 
said  Bob’s  father.  ”In  a  village  of  North  India 
there  lived  a  little  dark  man  named  Ditt.  He  was 
an  outcaste  whose  business  was  that  of  buying  and 
soiling  hides.  He  hoard  the  gospel  from  a  native 
Christian  convert,  was  baptized,  and  then  returned 
to  his  regular  work,  telling  his  friends  of  the  won¬ 
derful  Saviour  whom  he  had  found.  His  relatives 
jeered  at  him.  ^One  of  your  legs  is  broken  al¬ 
ready,’  they  said,  referring  to  his  lameness,  ‘so 
may  it  be  with  the  other!’  But  within  three 
months,  he  brought  to  the  mission  his  wife  and 
daughter  and  two  neighbors  to  be  baptized.  It 
was  a  distance  of  thirty  miles,  and,  in  spite  of  his 
lameness,  he  walked  with  them  the  entire  journey. 
As  time  went  on,  he  brought  other  neighbors,  walk¬ 
ing  with  them  each  time.  ” 

It  was  in  just  this  way  that  there  began,  within 
recent  years,  among  these  outcastes,  a  wonderful 
mass  movement  to  Christianity.  Whole  villages 
and  districts  have  sent  messengers  to  the  mission¬ 
aries  saying  that  they  have  decided  to  become 
Christians  and  that  they  want  to  be  baptized. 
The  missionary  who  receives  such  a  message  is 
likely  to  be  perplexed.  He  has  been  praying  that 


58 


THE  ^^■ONI)ERLAND  OF  INDIA 


these  people  may  tiud  the  Master,  and  now  they 
are  sincere  in  their  decision  to  become  Christians. 
But  how  little  they  know  about  the  Christian  life ! 
If  he  baptizes  them  all,  a  whole  village  full  of 
them  at  once,  before  they  have  received  any  in¬ 
struction  in  the  Christian  life,  it  is  almost  certain 
that  later  on  many  of  them  will  do  things  that  are 
wrong  and  unchristian.  Then  outsiders  will  sneer 
and  say,  “It  is  a  fine  lot  of  Christians  you  have 
there!”  Someone  must  teach  them  that  they 
must  give  up  worshipping  idols,  must  not  lie  or 
steal,  must  not  cheat,  must  he  kind  and  just  to 
their  neighbors,  must  live  by  doing  useful  work 
from  day  to  day,  and  must  send  their  children  to 
school  and  go  to  church  every  Sunday. 

In  the  early  days  of  this  mass  movement  the 
missionaries  and  their  native  helpers  were  able  to 
take  care  of  all  who  came,  but  now  such  numbers 
are  coming  that  there  are  no  teachers  who  can  ho 
sent  to  them ;  and  still,  more  and  more  they  come 
begging.  “Send  us  a  teacher.  Sahib,  we  want  to 
l:»ecome  Christians.  Everyone  considers  us  worse 
than  dogs.  Only  the  Christ  you  tell  us  of  cares  for 
us.”  And  the  missionary  can  only  say  to  them, 
“Next  year  there  will  be,  perhaps,  someone  wliom 
I  can  send.”  And  to  himself,  with  a  sigh,  “If  only 
the  peoxfie  in  America  knew,  surely  they  would 
send  the  help  we  need.” 

Those  who  have  been  baptized  from  among  these 
poor  outcastes  have  shown  wonderful  faithfulness 


An  out-of-door  service  in  a  Maratlia  village. 


60 


THE  H'OXDERLAND  OF  INDIA 


in  their  Christian  life.  They  are  tempted  and 
persecuted  and  bribed  in  all  sorts  of  ways,  for  the 
higher-caste  Hindns  do  not  want  to  lose  their 
slaves,  which  is,  in  effect,  what  these  outcastes 
really  are.  But  in  the  great  majority  of  cases  the 
new  converts  are  steadfast.  Moreover,  unlike  the 
early  Christians  of  the  New  Testament,  they  seem 
fairly  bubbling  over  with  a  wonderful  joy  even 
in  the  midst  of  persecution.  Never  before  in  all 
their  lives  has  anyone  loved  them.  Always  they 
have  known  nothing  but  fear;  fear  of  wild  beasts, 
fear  of  their  oppressors,  fear  of  demons.  Now 
they  know  what  love  is  and  are  strangely  happy. 

In  their  new  found  happiness  they  sing  new 
songs.  One  of  these  songs  of  joy  or  hhajans,  as 
they  are  called,  recently  swept  over  India.  Over¬ 
night  it  seemed  everybody  was  singing  it.  It  was 
composed  by  an  eight-year-old  boy,  the  son  of 
one  of  these  outcastes. 

Bajali  Yisu,  aijiah! 

Bajah  Yisu,  aiyali! 

Shaitan  ko  jitne  ke  liye. 

Bajah  Yisu,  aiyah! 

King  Jesus  is  come! 

King  Jesus  is  come! 

He  has  come  to  drive  away  Satan. 

King  Jesus  is  come! 


“KING  JESUS  IS  COME” 


61 


And  the  last  verse  is  the  best : 

King  Jesus  has  come  to  give  me  great  blessings. 
Everything  that  is  good  for  me; 

King  J esns  is  Come ! 


And  the  veiy  end  is  a  shout  of  triumph : 

Yisu,  Masilb  ki  Jui! 

Victory  to  Jesus  Christ! 

Surely  it  is  worth  while  to  send  missionaries  if 
we  can  so  transform  lives  of  misery  and  selfish¬ 
ness  into  lives  of  love,  happiness,  and  song. 


CHAPTER  FIVE 


Schooldays 

“Want  to  i>‘o  to  school  with  me?”  asked  Boh’s 
father  one  morning. 

“We’d  love  to!”  the  children  exclaimed,  “be¬ 
cause  we  won’t  have  to  study  if  you  are  along.” 

They  ])ut  on  their  big  sliade  hats  and  soon  were 
out  on  the  smooth  broad  road  over  which  a  donl)le 
row  of  splendid  mango  trees  arched.  Their  thick 
branches  gave  grateful  shade  from  the  Indian  sun 
that  was  Ideating  down,  hot  and  glaring,  on  the  lit¬ 
tle  mud-fenced  fields.  In  these  fields  the  yellow 
mustard  flowers  were  gay  amid  the  ri})ening 
wheat. 

As  they  approached  the  village  next  to  their 
own,  a  curious  sound  of  high  voices  apparently 
chanting  in  unison  caused  Bob  to  look  at  Peggy, 
and  they  both  laughed. 

Mearer  the  tiny  one-room  sclioolhouse  the  sound 
grew  louder  and  louder.  “That’s  the  wav  I’d  like 
to  study,”  exclaimed  Bob;  “at  the  top  of  my 
lungs !  ’  ’ 

“Yes,”  said  Peggy,  “but  not  if  you  had  to  stay 
in  one  dark,  stuffy  room  in  a  mud  house.” 

“Some  of  the  schools  Father  visits  are  lield  on 
verandas,  though,  and  some  are  out  under  a  big 
tree.  I’d  like  that. ” 

“Oh,  see  the  animals.  Uncle  John!”  shouted 


SCHOOLDAYS 


63 


Peggy,  jumping  up  and  down.  ‘‘It’s  just  like 
Mary’s  little  lamb.” 

They  bad  come  within  sight  of  the  door  of  tiie 
little  schoolhouse.  A  goat  was  browsing  about  the 
yard,  some  chickens  were  scratching  beside  the 
door,  and  from  a  branch  of  a  near-by  tree  swung  a 
mischievous  monkey  by  his  tail,  peering  in  through 
the  door  as  well  as  he  could. 

AVithin  the  room  Peggy  noticed  that  there  were 
no  desks.  There  was  a  table  and  chair  for  the 
teacher,  but  Bob  knew  that  in  some  village  schools 
even  these  were  lacking.  There  were  only  one  or 
two  schoolbooks  for  the  entire  class,  a  few  more 
slates  and  pencils,  and  a  small  blackboard.  But 
the  children  of  this  village  were  fortunate  in  hav¬ 
ing  any  school  at  all. 

It  is  curious  to  note  that  while  our  ancestors 
were  still  ignorant  barbarians,  Hindu  scholars 
were  inventing  the  wonderfully  clever  and  useful 
method  of  writing  numbers  which  we  now  use, — the 
so-called  Arabic  system  having  been  invented  in 
India, — and  yet  even  today  in  that  country  only 
one  boy  in  ten  can  read  and  write  and  only  one 
girl  in  a  hundred.  Although  during  thousands  of 
years  Brahman  boys  have  been  tanght  by  their 
priests, — i)rincipally,  it  must  be  confessed,  to 
memorize  the  sacred  scriptures, — there  were  no 
scliools  of  any  kind  in  India  for  the  common  peo¬ 
ple  until  the  early  missionaries  introduced  them. 
Even  in  those  villages  where  there  now  are  pri- 


64 


THE  WONDERLAND  OF  INDIA 


©  H.  li.  Ferger,  Lahore,  India 

In  such  mosque  scliools  as  this,  ^lohammedan  hoys  learn  to  repeat 
verses  from  the  Koran.  Tliey  also  learn  a  little  number-work  and 
their  alphabet. 


mary  scliools,  not  every  child  can  attend,  for  there 
are  the  goats  to  be  tended  and  fodder  for  the  oxen 
to  be  carried. 

As  Bob  and  Peggy  entered  the  school  with  their 
father,  a  little  boy  came  running  to  the  door.  He 
shouted,  ‘‘Dilawar,  Dilawar,  the  plow  is  broken! 
You  must  go  to  the  blacksmith  in  the  next  village.” 
And  Dilawar  left  for  the  day.  Interruptions  like 
this  were  likely  to  occur  at  any  time.  Under  such 
conditions  and  with  a  teacher  often  poorly  trained, 
it  is  no  wonder  that  the  children  do  not  make 
great  progress. 

On  the  wav  home  Bob’s  father  told  aliout  some 
night-schools,  started  by  missionaries,  for  men 
and  boys  who  cannot  attend  day-school.  In  these 


SCHOOLDAYS 


0)5 


schools  a  boy  and  his  father  can  study  together 
without  any  of  the  interruptions  that  arise  during 
the  day.  In  a  certain  village  the  people  asked  the 
missionary  to  start  such  a  school.  The  mission¬ 
ary  otfered  to  pay  for  the  land  if  the  people  would 
build  a  house.  Some  gave  bamboo  for  the  timbers 
and  the  roof,  others  gave  their  time  building  the 
mud  walls.  The  mission  supplied  a  good  lantern 
and  the  books.  The  pupils  pay  from  four  to  eight 
cents  a  month.  Some  fifty-five  men  and  boys  at¬ 
tend.  The  paths  to  the  school  lead  through  dark 
wood  infested  by  snakes  and  scorpions.  In  self¬ 
protection  the  pupils  come  in  groups,  singing  and 
clapping  their  hands  to  frighten  away  the  snakes, 
while  the  missionary  teacher  takes  care  to  have 
medicine  on  hand  in  case  anyone  should  be  bitten. 


A  little  village  mission  school  in  North  India. 


60 


THE  WONDERLAND  OF  INDIA 


The  school  opens  with  physical  exercises  because 
most  of  the  pupils  arc  tired  from  the  day’s  work 
and  need  to  be  thoroughly  awakened.  Following 
this  drill,  comes  the  scripture  lesson  and  then  the 
lessons  in  reading  and  writing.  By  the  time  the 
school  is  over,  it  is  too  late  to  go  home,  so  the 
men  and  hoys  stretch  out  on  the  floor  of  the  school¬ 
room  and  sleep  there  until  morning.  These  schools 
continue  for  only  two  months  each  year.  A  tired, 
sleepy  boy  studying  nights  for  two  months  cannot 
learn  a  great  deal,  still,  one  can  learn  something. 
It  is  hard  for  us  to  realize  how  much  even  a  few 
months’  schooling  may  mean. 

‘‘How  did  Tika  Earn  lose  his  field?”  asked  a 
missionary  in  a  certain  Indian  village. 

“He  put  his  thumb  impression  on  the  document 
without  knowing  what  it  contained,”  was  the  an¬ 
swer.  It  Avas  a  pitiful  story.  Tika  had  had  two 
deaths  in  his  family  and  needed  some  money.  He 
went  to  the  Hindu  money-lender  and  asked  for  a 
loan  of  sixty  rupees  (about  $20),  Avhich  the  money¬ 
lender  promised,  at  the  rate  of  scA-enty-five 
per  cent  per  year.  In  the  eA^ening  the  con¬ 
tract  Avas  ready.  Of  course  Tika  could  neither 
read  the  contract  nor  Avrite  his  name ;  he  had-  to 
take  the  money-lender’s  AAmrd  for  Avhat  he  Avas 
signing.  So  he  put  his  big  right  thumb  first  on  the 
ink  pad  and  then  at  the  bottom  of  the  Avriting. 
The  money-lender  signed  his  name  and  had  tAvo 
Avitnesses  to  sign  AAuth  him.  A  fcAV  days  later 


SCHOOLDAYS 


67 


some  Hindu  men  came  to  Tika’s  place  and  began 
looking  it  over.  When  Tika  asked  the  reason, 
they  replied,  ‘‘We  have  just  purchased  this  land 
from  the  money-lender.”  And  it  turned  out  that 
the  document  on  vdiicli  the  poor  farmer  had  put 
his  thumb,  in  reality  said  nothing  aliout  a  loan,  but 
stated  that  Tika  Earn  sold  his  farm  for  four  hun¬ 
dred  rupees.  The  money-lender  in  turn  had  sold 
it  again. 

There  are,  in  India,  however,  some  very  for¬ 
tunate  boys,  let  us  say  one  boy  in  a  thousand. 
Xot  only  is  his  father  al)le  to  keep  him  in  school 
all  through  the  primary  grades,  but  he  is  granted 
a  high  school  scholarship.  He  will  study  English 
and  history  and  science.  In  time  he  may  even  go 
to  one  of  the  mission  colleges,  or  he  may  go  to 
the  government  university.  Such  a  fortunate 
boy  will  prol)ably  some  day  be  found  to  have  be¬ 
come  either  a  lawyer  or  a  government  officer  in 
Calcutta  or  Bombay,  a  cultivated  gentleman, 
speaking  English  as  well  or  better  than  many 
educated  white  people  in  India.  There  are  no 
finer  men  anywhere  than  may  be  found  among  the 
college  graduates  of  India. 

Book  learning,  however,  is  only  one  part  of  edu¬ 
cation.  There  are  other  lessons  that  Indian  boys 
and  girls  are  being  taught  which  are  important, 
even  as  important  as  reading  and  writing.  They 
are  learning,  for  example.  Hint  the  plague  is 
caused  by  the  bites  of  fleas,  and  that  the  fleas  are 


68 


THE  WONDERLAND  OF  INDIA 


carried  by  rats ;  that  malaria  is  caused  by  a  certain 
kind  of  mosquito;  and  that  the  danger  of  cholera 
may  be  lessened  by  putting  a  little  permanganate 
of  potash  ill  the  village  well.  Still  more  import¬ 
ant  is  the  kind  of  education  which  builds  character, 
which  trains  in  honesty  and  helpfulness. 


Athletics  at  Lucknow  Christian  College  are  teaching  the  students 
fair  l)lay,  pluck,  and  teamwork. 


Because  there  are  many  splendid  lessons  which 
are  learned  better  through  athletic  games  than  in 
any  other  way,  the  missionary  teachers  have  in¬ 
troduced  football,  field  hockey,  and  cricket  into 
the  schools  of  India.  At  first  the  Hindu  boys  re¬ 
fused  to  play.  ‘AVhat,”  they  said,  “get  all  hot 
doing  coolie  work  and  chasing  a  ball  around!” 


SCHOOLDAYS 


69 


And  would  not  the  leather  ball  ‘  ‘  defile  ’  ’  them  since 
it  was  made  from  the  skin  of  a  dead  cow!  Grad¬ 
ually,  however,  the  lads  in  the  mission  schools 
have  got  over  these  prejudices  and  have  learned 
to  play  games  as  skilfully  as  any  boys  in  the  world. 
They  have  a  game  of  their  own  called  atia-patia, 
which  is  played  on  a  long,  narrow  field  like  a  foot¬ 
ball  gridiron,  except  that  it  is  only  six  yards  wide. 
In  such  games  the  boys  learn  not  to  cheat,  but  to 
play  fair,  to  be  plucky  in  the  face  of  defeat,  and, 
most  of  all,  to  cooperate  with  each  other  as  good 
team  workers  should. 

It  is  the  same  kind  of  education  that  the  scout 
movement  has  been  giving  for  years  to  American 
boys  and  girls.  The  first  troop  of  Boy  Scouts  in 
India  was  organized  a  little  over  five  years  ago. 
Today  there  are  over  twenty  thousand  Scouts  in 
that  country.  They  are  trained,  just  as  our  West¬ 
ern  Scouts  are  trained,  in  map-drawing,  camp¬ 
cooking,  first-aid,  and  other  kinds  of  useful  service. 

Troop  Number  One  of  Debra  Dun  in  northern 
India,  went  on  a  camping  trip  two  or  three  sum¬ 
mers  ago.  There  were  ten  boys  in  the  squad,  to¬ 
gether  with  their  Scoutmaster.  They  started  out 
on  the  trip  carrying  their  own  blankets  and  duffel 
bags.  Some  of  them  wore  high-caste  boys  who,  a 
few  months  before,  would  have  considered  it  be¬ 
neath  their  dignity  to  carry  anything.  They  would 
have  called  it  ‘‘coolie  work.”  When  they  reached 
the  camp,  there  was  the  same  noise  and  fun  as  in 


70 


THE  WONDERLAND  OF  INDIA 


our  American  Scout  camps.  But  when  tlio  time 
came  for  tlie  ^‘eats,”  a  ditfereiice  was  to  be  no¬ 
ticed.  Some  of  the  boys  were  Hindus  and  some 
were  Mohammedans,  and  the  food  for  each  group 
was  cooked  separately  and  eaten  separately.  The 
Scoutmaster  wondered  how  long  that  arrangement 
would  last.  ‘‘Tomorrow  morning  there  will  ])e 
flap-jacks  for  breakfast,”  he  said  to  himself. 
‘‘Suppose  the  call  goes  up  for  ‘seconds  on  the  fla])- 
jacks,’  and  there  are  extra  plates  full  on  one  table 
and  none  on  the  other;  what  will  happen?”  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  on  this  particular  tri}),  before  the 
two  weeks  were  over  all  the  boys  were  eating  to¬ 
gether  at  one  table. 

A  report  from  another  Scoutmaster  shows  how 
these  Indian  Scouts  are  learning  the  lesson  of  serv¬ 
ice  to  all  who  are  in  need  of  help.  This  report 
tolls  what  the  Scouts  did  at  two  melas.  “At  both 
of  the  melas,  our  Scouts  were  out  in  full  force  with 
two  other  troops,  nearly  one  hundred  in  all.  AYe 
had  a  tent  to  wiiicli  all  lost  children  were  l)rought 
and  kept  until  they  were  claimed  by  tlieir  parents. 
This  tent  was  gaily  decorated  with  flags  and  scout 
signs  in  four  languages.  AA^e  also  had  arrange¬ 
ments  for  su])plying  water  to  the  thirsty,  the 
scouts  drawing  and  carrying  it  themselves.  On 
the  last  dav  of  the  Jhanda  Alela,  we  were  on  dutv 
at  the  railway  station,  showing  people  how  to  stand 
in  line  and  hel])ing  women  and  old  peo]fle  to  buy 
their  tickets.  To  stand  in  line  was  a  new  exjier- 


SCHOOLDAYS 


71 


ience  for  all,  but  they  soon  found  tliat  they  got 
their  tickets  quicker  than  in  the  old  method  and 
without  the  usual  pushing  and  fighting.” 

Another  fine  example  of  this  kind  of  education 
is  the  work  of  a  mission  school  in  Kashmir,  under 
the  direction  of  Mr.  Tyndale-Biscoe.  The  Vale  of 
Kashmir  is  called  the  paradise  of  India.  It  is 
situated  high  among  the  Himalayas,  and  the  cli¬ 
mate  is  delightful.  On  every  side,  in  the  distance, 
may  be  seen  magnificent  snow-capped  mountain 
peaks.  The  school  is  located  in  the  capital  city, 
Srinagar,  on  the  Jhelum  River. 

My.  Tyndale-Biscoe  went  there  some  thirty  years 
ago  as  headmaster.  As  the  school  building  was 
situated  directly  on  the  banks  of  the  river,  he 
undertook  to  teach  the  boys  to  row.  When  he  se¬ 
cured  his  first  l)oat,  he  himself  rowed  it  down  the 
river  to  the  school.  As  he  neared  the  building,  “the 
Avindows  were  crowded  with  straining  necks  and 
turbaned  heads,  all  grinning  and  chattering,  won¬ 
dering  Avhat  new  folly  the  young  Sahib  had  taken 
to  noAv.”  When  he  proposed  to  the  boys  that  they 
should  learn  to  roAV,  he  learned  to  his  astonish¬ 
ment  that  “a  Brahman  must  not  touch  an  English 
oar  because  on  it  is  a  button  of  leather,  and  leather 
is  made  from  a  dead  cow.”  Moreover,  no  Brahman 
must  roAV  or  paddle  a  boat  because  only  members 
of  the  boatman  caste  do  that  kind  of  Avork.  In 
fact,  pulling  an  oar  might  produce  muscle  on  the 
arms  and  only  boatman  coolies  and  other  Ioav- 


72 


THE  WONDERLAND  OF  INDIA 


caste  folks  have  muscles.  That  was  thirty  years 
ago.  Today  there  is  a  great  race  on  the  river 
every  summer,  over  a  two  mile  course,  where 
crews  from  this  and  nine  other  schools  compete. 

This  is  only  a  small  part  of  the  story.  When 
Mr.  Tyndale-Biscoe  first  came  to  Srinagar  he 
found  at  the  school  some  two  hundred  hoys, 
‘^smelly  and  dirty,  squatting  on  the  floor  with 
mouths  open,  and  fingers  messing  around  their 
faces  or  holding  fire-pots  under  their  long  night¬ 
gown-shaped  clothes.  Often  the  only  clean  spot 
on  these  Brahman  boys  was  the  daub  of  red  paint 
on  their  foreheads,  put  there  by  the  priest  to  show 
that  they  were  worshippers  of  the  god  Siva.” 
With  all  their  dirt,  they  would  not  allow  their 
teacher  to  touch  them  for  fear  of  defiling  them 
and  would  squirm  if,  by  chance,  he  patted  them 
on  the  back.  Not  only  were  they  dirty  in  body, 
they  were  deceitful,  lazy,  insolent,  and  conceited. 
In  this  new  school,  however,  beside  their  lessons 
and  books,  they  soon  found  themselves,  not  only 
rowing,  but  also  swimming  and  organized  in  teams 
for  cricket  and  other  games. 

The  motto  of  the  school  is,  ‘Mn  All  Things  Be 
Men.”  They  were  expected  to  look  every  day  for 
opportunities  of  being  helpful  and  kind  to  other 
people.  There  surely  was  need  for  helpfulness  in 
that  land.  Srinagar,  thirty  years  ago,  was  ‘‘a 
huge,  rabbit-warren  sort  of  place,  of  125,000  in¬ 
habitants.  All  the  streets  were  crooked,  all  the 


SCHOOLDAYS 


73 


streets  were  narrow,  all  the  streets  were  filthy. 
Instead  of  paving  stones,  rocks  of  all  shapes  and 
sizes  had  been  thrown  down  indiscriminately,  so 
that  pedestrians  had  to  pick  their  way  from  rock 
to  rock,  avoiding,  if  possible,  the  mud  that  lay 
between.  The  garbage  was  thrown  in  the  streets. 
Had  dogs  not  been  created  to  feed  on  garbage! 
The  character  of  the  people  was  what  you  might 
expect  in  such  surroundings.  The  male  sex  pushed 
all  women  and  children  out  of  their  path,  but  made 
way  for  cows  and  the  pariah  dogs,  as  the  former 
have  horns  and  the  latter,  teeth.”  Not  very 
promising  surroundings  for  a  school,  surely !  But 
this  school  has  educated  and  trained  boys  by  set¬ 
ting  them  to  change  as  far  as  they  could  these 
wretched  conditions.  They  have  learned  to  be 
loving,  by  bringing  love  into  that  unloving  and 
selfish  city. 

About  eighteen  years  ago  there  was  a  severe 
epidemic  of  cholera  in  Kashmir.  The  boys  from 
the  school  volunteered  to  clean  up  the  city.  In 
spite  of  the  opposition  of  the  priests,  they  took 
their  picks  and  shovels,  went  to  the  city  dumping 
ground  and  began  to  dig  ditches  for  drains  and 
holes  for  burying  the  filth.  Bay  after  day  they 
worked  until  they  turned  that  breeding  ground  of 
pestilence  into  a  park  with  grass  and  flowers. 
Another  year  there  was  a  famine,  and  the  greedy 
merchants  charged  enormous  prices  for  rice,  which 
is  the  staple  food  of  the  people.  The  boys  from 


74 


THE  WONDERLAND  OF  INDIA 


the  school  again  volunteered  at  the  call  of  the 
governor  of  the  province  and  went  np  and  down 
the  river  for  many  miles  searching  for  rice  which 
might  be  bought  at  a  cheaper  price  and  brought 
into  the  city.  The  spirit  of  Christ,  as  revealed  in 
such  deeds  as  these,  has  completely  taken  posses¬ 
sion  of  the  school. 


Baseliall  at  Lucknow  Christian  College.  Until  a  few  years  ago, 
physical  exercise  was  scorned  among  the  caste  people  of  India. 
Now  athletic  sports  and  games  are  entered  into  as  enthusias¬ 
tically  as  in  the  West. 


While  these  things  have  lieen  done  for  the  boys 
of  India,  what  sort  of  chance  has  little  sister 
been  given? 

Down  to  modern  times  a  school  for  girls  was  an 


SCHOOLDAYS 


75 


unheard  of  thing.  ‘  ‘  What !  ’  ’  exclaimed  one  Hindu ; 
“Teach  my  daughter  to  read!  Teach  my  cow. 
It  will  learn  as  easily  as  any  girl  will.”  Dr.  Duff, 
one  of  the  early  missionaries,  declared,  “You  may 
as  well  try  to  climb  a  wall  five  hundred  miles  high 
as  get  a  Brahman  to  send  his  girls  to  school.” 
Even  today  all  the  customs  and  ideas  of  India  in 
regard  to  girls  and  women  are  chains  to  hold  them 
hack. 

A  little  girl  in  India  is  not  welcomed  when  she 
is  born.  When  her  brother  came,  there  was  a 
great  celebration,  with  rattles  and  drums.  You 
would  have  thought  it  was  New  Year’s  Eve  in 
America.  But  no  drums  were  beaten  wdien  his 
sister  was  born, — she  was  “only  a  girl.”  As  she 
grows  older,  it  may  be  that  a  missionary  will  try 
to  persuade  her  father  to  send  her  to  a  school  for 
girls,  just  as  he  is  sending  her  brother.  But  her 
father  will  probably  say,  “What’s  the  use;  in  a 
few  years  she  will  be  married.  Why  bother!” 
Some  day,  b}"  and  by,  her  mother  will  call  her  into 
the  house  to  try  on  a  new  dress.  It  will  be  prettier 
than  any  she  has  ever  had  before.  “Oh,  isn’t  it 
lovely!”  she  will  exclaim.  And  there  will  be  new 
bracelets  of  colored  glass,  and  shining  silver  ban¬ 
gles.  How  beautiful!  But  then  will  come  the 
bad  news.  Her  mother  will  tell  her  that  the  new 
sari  is  to  be  her  wedding  dress.  Her  father  has 
arranged  her  marriage  with  the  help  of  the  vil¬ 
lage  barber,  who  has  found  her  a  husband.  After 


76 


THE  WONDERLAND  OF  INDIA 


she  is  married,  it  is  likely  that  she  will  have  to  be 
a  drudge  in  the  household  of  her  husband’s 
mother.  She  will  never  be  permitted  to  go  out  on 
the  streets,  except  with  her  face  veiled;  she  must 
never  speak  to  any  men,  except  members  of  her 
own  family;  if  she  ever  goes  on  a  journey,  she  will 
have  to  travel  in  a  heavily  curtained  carriage, 
‘‘behind  the  purdah,”  as  they  call  it.  What 
chance  will  she  have  to  see  things  or  to  meet 
people  or  to  grow  in  mind  through  new  exper¬ 
iences — to  say  nothing  of  going  to  school ! 

And  yet,  there  are  girls  in  India,  today,  who  are 
getting'  an  education, — a  fortunate  few.  Their 
fathers  are  somehow  persuaded  to  let  them  go  for 
a  little  while  to  one  of  the  rare  primary  schools  for 
girls.  There  they  learn  to  read  and  to  write  the 
queer  letters  of  the  Indian  alphabet,  practising 
them  on  the  loose  sand  of  the  schoolroom  floor. 
For  a  few  months,  perhaps  a  year  or  two,  they 
may  go — and  those  years  will  be  so  happy!  And 
then  will  come  the  message  that  they  must  come 
home  to  be  married.  Most  Hindu  girls,  even  the 
few  who  are  given  a  little  education,  are  called 
home  from  school  in  this  way  before  they  are 
twelve. 

It  seems  a  pitiful  thing  to  say,  but,  in  view  of 
the  customs  which  the  great  majority  of  Hindu 
families  still  follow  strictly,  it  might  be  that  only 
through  some  great  misfortune  would  a  girl  ever 
have  an  opportunity  to  go  to  any  school  above  the 


SCHOOLDAYS 


77 


primary  grade.  If  a  terrible  famine  or  pestilence 
slionld  leave  her  without  relatives  to  care  for  her, 
some  kind  missionaries  might  take  her  into  one  of 
their  homes  and  send  her  to  high  school  or  col¬ 
lege.  Or,  if  her  husband  should  die,  she  might  be 


Tliese  Brahman  girls,  wlio  attend  a  mission  school  in  South  India, 
have  many  ways  of  decorating  their  hair. 


SO  ill-treated  that  she  would  run  away  and  find 
refuge  in  some  Christian  widow’s  home  or  school. 

A  great  many  of  the  girls’  schools  in  India  were 
first  opened  as  orphanages  that  took  care  of  little 
girls  who  had  been  left  to  die  during  famines  and 
who  had  been  picked  up  and  brought  to  these 
“funny  people  who  cared  about  girls.”  Other 


78 


THE  WONDERLAND  OF  INDIA 


schools  have  been  opened  just  for  child-widows. 
The  life  of  a  widow  in  India  is  perhaps  the  sad¬ 
dest  in  all  the  world.  In  their  ignorance  and 
superstition  the  people  suppose  that  the  death  of 
the  husband  is  because  of  his  wife’s  sins.  All  her 
good  clothes  and  jewelry  are  snatched  away  from 
her,  her  head  is  shaved,  she  is  dressed  in  old, 
ragged  clothing,  and  everyone  curses  and  avoids 
her.  Her  very  touch  is  considered  defiling,  as 
though  she  were  an  outcaste  or  a  pariah.  Many  a 
poor  little  child-widow  has  fled  for  refuge  to  the 
Christian  missionary. 

However,  all  who  love  India  rejoice  that  the 
teaching  of  the  Christian  ideals  of  family  life  is 
beginning  to  show  its  effect  even  in  families  where 
the  members  have  not  become  Christians  in  name. 
Here  and  there  are  courageous  Hindu  gentlemen 
who  see  that  such  cruel  treatment  of  widows  is  a 
great  blot  on  Indian  life  and  they  refuse  to  follow 
the  old  customs  any  longer. 

There  is  another  way,  and  a  wonderful  way,  in 
which  an  Indian  girl  may  be  given  a  real  chance 
to  develop  into  the  beautiful,  educated  woman 
which  she  may  become;  her  parents  may  be  won 
to  Christ,  and  all  their  ideas  may  be  changed. 
There  are  more  and  more  such  Christian  homes 
every  day,  and  from  them  come  hundreds  of  Chris¬ 
tian  girls  to  the  various  schools  and  colleges  for 
Avomen  Avhich  the  missionaries  have  founded. 

The  oldest  and  most  famous  woman’s  college  in 


SCHOOLDAYS 


79 


India  was  established  by  Isabella  M.  Tlioburn,  a 
brave  American  woman  who  went  to  India  years 
ago  to  find  out  if  it  were  really  true  that  you  could 
get  no  Indian  girls  into  a  schoolroom.  Eight 
among  the  shops  of  the  Lucknow  bazaar  she 
opened  a  little  school  in  a  tiny  mud  house.  At 
first  some  of  the  Hindus  tried  to  break  it  up  by 
force,  and  she  had  to  hire  guards.  Nevertheless, 
the  girls  continued  to  come,  and  the  school  grew 
until  she  had  to  ask  for  money  to  buy  a  larger 
building.  So  it  came  about  that  the  school  was 
moved  to  Lai  Bagli,  a  beautiful  old  residence  with 
large  grounds.  More  and  more  classes  were 
added.  A  high  school  department  was  started, 
and  then  even  college  classes.  It  was  given  the 
name  of  its  founder,  and  Isabella  Thoburn  Col¬ 
lege  became  the  first  college  for  women  in  all 
Asia.  Today,  this  college  has  been  made  the 
women’s  department  in  the  great  government  uni¬ 
versity  at  Lucknow. 

The  students  in  the  few  colleges  and  schools  that 
there  are  for  girls  in  India  have  wonderfully  good 
times.  They  have  learned,  for  example,  to  play 
basketball.  At  first  they  could  not  grasp  the  idea. 
When  the  center  was  knocked  down  in  the  scrim¬ 
mage,  she  flew  into  a  rage.  After  the  game,  the 
losing  team  cried  like  babies.  But  gradually  they 
learned  to  take  hard  knocks  and  laugh  at  them  and 
to  play  fair.  Dramatics  they  find  great  fun  too. 
The  Hindu  people  seem  to  have  a  natural  talent 


80 


THE  WONDERLAXD  OF  INDIA 


for  acting.  They  love  to  turn  Bible  stories  and 
old  Hindu  tales  into  plays  and  act  them  out.  Be¬ 
side  their  study  and  their  play  these  girls  learn 
not  to  cheat,  to  he  loyal  to  their  school,  and  always 
to  be  kind. 


Gill  Guides  of  the  Isabella  Thohurn  High  School,  Lucknow,  are 
learning  a  new  spirit  of  helpfulness  and  strength  to  carry  back 
to  their  home  villages. 

A  group  of  girls  wrote  this  letter  of  apology 
to  their  teacher : 

Dear  Miss . : 

"We  are  the  Alatli  students  avIio  made  you  so  much 
troulile  this  morning,  and  we  feel  very  sorry.  AYe  ought 
to  have  told  you  before,  but  we  did  not,  so  please  e.xeuse 
us  for  the  fault  we  committed  and  realize  now.  Our 
love  to  you. 


Fifth  Form  ]\L\th  Girls 


SCHOOLDAYS 


81 


It  is  not  strange  that  when  such  girls  as  these  go 
back  to  their  own  villages,  they  bring  a  new  spirit 
into  their  homes.  One  girl  wrote  to  her  teacher 
during  the  summer  vacation:  ‘‘We  have  given  our 
mother  a  month’s  holiday.  All  she  needs  to  do  is 
to  go  to  the  bazaar  and  buy  supplies.  My  sister 
and  I  do  all  the  rest.”  Another  girl,  named 
Jewel,  begged  the  use  of  the  sewing-machine  in 
the  mission  bungalow  and  for  days  before  Christ¬ 
mas,  with  her  bare  feet  on  the  treadle,  kept  the 
wheels  whirling,  making  presents  for  all  her  many 
little  brothers  and  sisters. 

Of  all  who  have  helped  the  girls  and  women  of 
India  to  a  better  chance  in  life,  none  have  done 
more  or  served  their  cause  more  faithfully  and 
heroicallv  than  one  of  India’s  own  daughters,  the 
famous  Pandita  Eamabai,  whose  death  on  April 
5,  1922,  was  mourned  all  over  the  world.  Eama¬ 
bai ’s  father,  a  Brahman,  was  an  extraordinary 
man  who,  in  the  face  of  all  the  traditions  of  his 
people,  believed  in  educating  women.  He  took  his 
little  girl-wife  away  from  his  relatives  into  the 
forest,  where  he  built  a  hut  and  where  they  lived 
and  studied  together.  When  their  little  daughter 
Eamabai  was  old  enough,  she  also  studied  with  her 
father  and  mother,  and  they  were  all  very  happy. 

But  after  a  time,  a  terrible  famine  came,  in 
which  Eamabai  lost  both  her  father  and  her 
mother.  She  never  forgot  their  life  together,  how¬ 
ever,  or  her  father’s  ideas  about  giving  women  an 


82  THE  WONDERLAND  OF  INDIA 

equal  chance.  This  impression  was  deepened  hy 
an  event  which  she  saw  when  she  Avas  a  little  girl 
of  eight.  She  was  playing  in  the  courtyard  of  the 
house  Avhere  her  father’s  people  lived  in  the  town 
of  Muttra.  In  the  same  yard  a  child-wife  was  sit¬ 
ting  at  her  spinning-Avheel.  In  those  days  nearly 
all  the  clothing  in  India  was  made  of  home-spun 
cotton.  Factory-made  cloth  was  rarely  seen. 
Presently  the  little  wife  was  called  for  a  moment 
into  the  house  and  left  her  pile  of  cotton  lying  by 
the  Avheel.  This  Avas  too  great  a  temptation  to  the 
monkeys  that  Avere  chattering  on  the  roof  of  the 
house.  One  of  them  leaped  doAvn,  snatched  up  the 
cotton,  and  disappeared.  The  loss  Avas  a  mere 
trifle,  hut  the  inother-in-laAV,  a  hard,  cruel  Avoman, 
Avould  not  believe  the  story  about  the  monkeys 
and,  not  only  beat  the  child  cruelly,  but  complained 
to  the  husband  about  the  Avasteful,  deceitful  crea¬ 
ture  he  had  brought  into  the  house.  He  too  be¬ 
came  enraged  and  Avhipped  the  friendless,  help¬ 
less  little  one.  Ramabai  never  forgot  her  pitiful 
cries. 

As  she  greAV  older,  Ramabai  continued  to  study, 
until,  in  later  years,  the  fame  of  her  learning  had 
so  spread  that  she  Avas  aide  to  sup])ort  herself  hy 
lecturing.  The  proud  Brahmans  Avere  amazed  to 
hear  her  quote  the  ancient  Avritings.  They  called 
her  ‘‘Pandita,”  or  learned,  a  title  no  Avoman  had 
been  alloAA-ed  to  hear.  As  soon  as  possilfle,  she 
tried  to  carry  out  her  father’s  ideas.  She  Avent  to 


SCHOOLDAYS 


83 


England  to  study  the  schools  there  in  the  hope  of 
doing’  something  for  the  widows  of  her  own  coun¬ 
try.  While  in  England,  she  came  to  believe  in 
Christ.  Eeturning  to  India,  she  opened  a  home 
for  high-caste  Hindu  widows.  Her  beautiful  kind¬ 
ness  and  love  soon  won  their  hearts. 

A  little  later  a  terrible  famine  broke  out  in  Cen¬ 
tral  India,  and  Eamabai  hurried  to  the  famine  dis¬ 
trict  and  brought  back  three  hundred  starving 
girls.  She  placed  them  on  a  little  farm  which  she 
had  bought  and  taught  them,  not  only  how  to  do 
all  kinds  of  work,  but  also  to  read  and  write.  This 
home  is  called  Muhti,  or  Salvation,  and  over  the 
entrance  are  the  words  in  Marathi,  “Praise  the 
Lord.”  Prom  it  have  gone  out  hundreds  of  en¬ 
lightened  Christian  women  who  are  helping  to 
make  a  new  India.  Those  who  marry  and  have 
families  do  not  quickly  become  just  ignorant  old 
women,  but  wise  loving  mothers,  like  our  own  dear 
mothers  in  America. 

How  quickly  India  would  be  changed  and  made 
Christlike  if  only  there  were,  not  hundreds,  but 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  such  mothers,  to  love 
and  comfort  and  train  their  boys  and  girls,  and  of 
fathers  trained,  in  such  schools  as  Tyndale-Bis- 
coe’s  at  Srinagar,  to  be  strong  and  courageous 
Christian  gentlemen. 


i 


^  '4  . 


CHAPTER  SIX 

Feeding  the  Hungry 

Peggy,”  said  Uncle  John,  “if  you  had  five 
cents  a  day  to  spend  on  food,  what  would  you 
buy!” 

“Why — why — ,”  said  Peggy,  “I  think  I’d  buy 
an  apple.” 

“And  would  that  satisfy  you  until  the  next 
day?” 

“Oh,  I’d  want  Mother  to  give  me  some  cereal 
for  breakfast,  and  some  bread  and  jam,  at  least, 
for  lunch,  and  some  meat  and  potatoes  for  dinner.” 

“That  is  what  the  boys  and  girls  of  India  must 
‘want’  too,  but  what  most  of  them  get  is  the  equi¬ 
valent  of  the  apple  you  mentioned.  ’  ’ 

“They’re  hungry  about  all  the  time,  aren’t 
they?”  asked  Bob. 

“Yes,”  was  the  reply,  “and  although  the  ‘wealth 
of  India’  has  been  a  proverb  since  long  before  the 
time  of  Solomon,  most  of  the  common  people  live, 
even  to-day,  on  a  mere  i)ittance.” 

Bob’s  father  then  went  on  to  tell  Bob  and  Peggy 
that  poverty  in  India  grows  out  of  a  number  of 
causes.  One  is,  that  her  people  are  not  trained  in 
the  best  ways  of  working.  For  this  reason  mis¬ 
sionaries  have  started  schools  where  their  pupils 
can  learn  trades. 

At  Baranagar,  a  town  five  miles  north  of  Cal- 

84 


FEEDING  THE  HUNGRY 


85 


cutta,  there  were  eighteen  boys  in  an  orphanage, 
poor  waifs  who  had  been  rescued  from  death  dur¬ 
ing  one  of  India’s  famines.  There  was  very  little 
money  to  care  for  them,  and  the  woman  mission¬ 
ary  in  charge  began  to  wonder,  “Is  there  no  way 
in  which  the  boys  can  work  and  earn  money  to  help 
care  for  themselves!”  Then  she  thought  of  Ani- 
rito,  a  clever  mechanic  in  that  town. 

Amrito’s  father  had  been  a  clerk.  Amrito  was 
to  have  been  a  clerk  also,  but  after  his  father’s 
death,  his  friends  grew  tired  of  paying  for  his 
education  and  decided  to  make  him  an  apprentice 
to  an  engraver  in  a  gun  factory.  Amrito  was 
heartbroken  at  first,  but  finally  concluded  to  make 
the  best  of  it.  He  became  a  skilled  workman  and 
stayed  in  the  factory  eleven  years.  By  the  end  of 
that  time  he  was  earning  unusually  high  wages  for 
an  Indian. 

When  Miss  Evans,  the  missionary  at  the  or¬ 
phanage,  asked  Amrito  if  he  could  not  teach  her 
boys  some  trade,  he  went  home  and  thought  and 
prayed  over  the  matter.  It  would  mean  a  good 
deal  of  self-sacrifice.  But  he  saw  a  chance  to  do 
a  great  service,  even  greater  perhaps  than  the 
missionary  had  dreamed. 

The  next  day  he  said  to  Miss  Evans,  “Could 
you  trust  me  to  begin  a  school  for  boys?  I  will 
take  no  pay.”  The  result  was  that  the  school  was 
started  at  once.  Amrito  gave  up  his  good  position 
in  the  factory  and  even  contributed  jewelry  which 


86 


THE  \YONDERLAND  OF  INDIA 


was  sold  for  what  it  would  bring.  Friends  gave 
land  and  tools.  The  boys  gradually  made  other 
tools  for  themselves.  The  buildings  were  so  small 
that  each  time  they  were  given  a  new  piece  of 
machinery,  they  had  to  build  an  addition  in  order 
to  make  room  for  it.  All  the  old  boxes  that  came 
in  were  taken  by  the  boys  and  made  into  shelves 
and  drawers  and  benches. 

Little  by  little  the  school  has  grown,  until  it  has 
made  a  splendid  name  for  itself  in  all  that  part  of 
India.  The  boys  work  at  their  machines  and  learn 
mechanical  trades  by  day,  and  in  the  evening  have 
lessons  in  reading,  writing,  and  arithmetic.  The 
articles  they  make  are  sold,  and  from  the  proceeds 
the  boys  are  paid,  just  like  other  apprentices. 
They  themselves  wrote  this  little  school  song  about 
their  work : 


The  soldiers  in  Mespot  have  often  used  oil 
Kept  in  bottles  of  brass  supplied  by  our  toil. 

Many  muzzle  protectors  and  cartridge  belt  studs 
Have  g’oue  from  our  workshop  to  their  fighting  squads. 
For  Assam  tea  gardens  we’ve  sifters  and  driers; 

For  jute  mills,  cop  spindles  and  brass  gills  and  fliers; 
For  steamers,  for  trains,  and  for  warehouses,  locks; 

For  municipal  hydrants  the  best  water-cocks. 

In  exalted  position  our  work  may  be  seen, 

For  Government  House  a  good  patron  has  been. 

Brass  handles  for  drawer  chests  and  casters  for  chairs. 
And  eyes  for  the  brass  rods  on  vice-regal  stairs. 

After  a  few  years  the  boys  leave  the  school  and 
go  into  factories  in  Calcutta  and  elsewhere,  re- 


FEEDING  THE  HUNGRY 


87 


ceiving  good  wages.  The  people  of  Baraiiagar  no 
longer  say,  “Only  dunces  go  to  a  school  where 
they  learn  to  work  with  their  hands.”  The  boys 
learn,  not  only  to  do  honest  work,  but  to  be  square 
in  all  business  dealings  and  to  remember  the 
school’s  mottoes:  “God  is  Almighty,”  and  “Pray 
devoutly,  labor  stoutly.”  It  is  a  great  work  that 
Amrito  has  accomplished  in  Baranagar.  Other 
schools  like  his  have  since  been  started  by  mis¬ 
sionaries,  where  both  boys  and  girls  can  learn 
trades  and  where  they  can  learn  to  be  proud  of 
good  work  of  any  kind. 

But  there  are  comparatively  few  factories  in 
India,  as  compared  with  America,  where  men  and 
boys  can  find  employment.  AVith  her  rich  soil  and 
warm  climate,  India  will  always  be  chiefly  a  land 
of  farms.  It  is  even  more  important  to  teach  her 
peo})lo  how  to  be  skilful  farmers  than  to  establish 
schools  for  training  brass  and  iron  workers.  For 
years  missionaries  have  tried  to  think  of  ways  to 
help  the  farmers  raise  larger  crops  in  order  that 
not  so  many  people  would  have  to  go  to  bed  hungry 
every  night. 

In  one  district  where  throngs  of  despised  out- 
castes,  living  in  the  deepest  poverty  were  beg¬ 
ging  the  mission  to  receive  them  as  Christians, 
the  missionaries  found  a  unique  opportunity  to 
help  the  peo])le.  These  outcastes  kept  chickens — ■ 
poor,  weak,  unprofitable  fowls  they  were — but  still 
the  people  knew  something  about  the  care  of  poul- 


88 


THE  \YOXDERLAXD  OF  IXDIA 


try,  and  this  was  enough  to  furnish  the  rude  be¬ 
ginnings  of  a  new  enterprise.  Mr.  Arthur  E. 
Slater,  one  of  the  young  missionaries  who  had  a 
vision  of  what  might  be  achieved  by  these  humble 
folk  if  they  were  taught  a  respectable  trade,  came 


]\Ir.  Slater  and  his  native  lielpers  find  “missionaries  in  feathers” 
good  assistants  in  teaching  the  people  of  India  how  to  make 
better  livings. 


to  Canada  and  took  a  thorough  course  in  poultry 
culture  at  an  agricultural  college.  Then  he  went 
back  to  the  little  town  of  Etah,  miles  from  a  rail¬ 
road,  and  began  to  show  the  people  how  to  breed 
better  fowls  and  how  to  increase  the  production  of 
eggs.  He  imported  some  tine  American  chickens, 
crossed  them  with  the  native  breeds,  and  sold  set¬ 
tings  of  eggs  to  the  people. 


FP]EDmG  THE  HUNGRY 


89 


Soon  these  wonderful  chickens  began  to  be  the 
talk  of  the  villages.  The  people  could  scarcely 
believe  their  eyes  when  they  saw  how  many  eggs 
were  being  gathered.  Mr.  Slater  also  showed  them 
how  to  avoid  being  cheated  by  the  tricky  egg  mer¬ 
chants  who  had  been  defrauding  them,  and  he 
opened  up  a  better  market  for  the  produce.  Every 
year  he  receives  from  friends  in  America  new 
shipments  of  these  “missionaries  in  feathers,”  as 
he  calls  his  imported  chickens.  Today  the  ])eople 
of  that  district,  who,  in  former  years,  were  miser¬ 
able,  filthy,  and  hopeless,  are  becoming  a  clean, 
well-fed,  and  happy  community.  They  have  their 
own  schools  and  their  own  church,  which  they 
themselves  largely  support. 

With  this  same  purpose  of  helping  the  people 
to  get  more  out  of  their  farms,  agricultural  schools 
and  experiment  stations  have  been  started  by 
many  missions.  One  of  the  most  famous  of  these 
is  the  Allahabad  Agricultural  Institute  which  was 
founded  as  a  result  of  the  vision  and  energy  of 
Mr.  Sam  Higginbottom. 

The  land  that  was  bought  for  the  farm  on  which 
the  Institute  is  located  was  considered  very  poor. 
Mr.  Higginbottom  did  not  want  people  to  say; 
“Oh,  you  had  good  land!  Anybody  could  raise 
fine  crops  on  such  land!”  They  could  never  say 
this  about  the  Jumna  Farm.  In  fact,  at  first,  the 
neighboring  farmers  said  just  the  opposite.  They 
laughed,  “You’ll  never  get  anywhere  with  that 


!)0 


THE  ONDERLAND  OF  INDIA 


land.”  It  was  infested  with  a  kind  of  quack  grass 
that  spreads  from  the  roots  as  well  as  through 
seed.  The  native  plows  only  cut  through  the  roots 
of  the  grass,  and  each  small  fragment  begins  at 
once  to  send  out  new  shoots.  The  result  is  that  in 
the  course  of  a  few  years  such  a  field  becomes  so 
completely  matted  with  this  wiry  grass  that  it  is 
almost  a  hopeless  task  to  try  to  redeem  it.  But 
]\Ir.  Higginbottom  began  his  work  by  importing 
some  fine  American  plows  which  would  turn  a  fur¬ 
row  ten  inches  deejo.  With  these  he  plowed  his 
land,  turning  the  quack  grass  sods  completely  over 
and  exposing  their  roots  to  the  sun.  That  very 
first  year,  as  the  result  of  the  deep  plowing,  and  in 
spite  of  a  dry  season,  his  crops  were  better  than 
those  raised  even  in  favorable  years  in  that  part 
of  the  country. 

Everybody  marvelled.  Young  farmer  lads  came 
to  the  mission  and  said,  “Teach  us  the  new  ways.” 
There  was  little  money  to  care  for  them,  and  no 
buildings  where  they  could  live  or  where  classes 
could  meet.  A  school  was  started,  nevertheless. 
In  dry  weather  the  boys  slept  under  the  trees. 
AVhen  it  rained,  they  took  shelter  in  the  machineiy 
shed.  By-and-by  more  money  came  in  from 
friends  in  America,  buildings  were  erected,  and 
the  school  grew.  The  boys  are  taught  how  to  use 
better  fertilizers,  how  to  make  betters  breeds  of 
cattle,  and  how  to  build  silos  for  preserving  green 
fodder  for  the  cattle  through  the  long  dry  season. 


FEEDING  THE  HUNGRY 


91 


A  very  imi)ortaiit  tiling  they  learn  is  how  to  use 
labor-saving  machinery.  Sometimes  there  are 
amusing  difficulties.  The  ordinary  Indian  ])low 
is  only  a  curved  piece  of  wood  with  a  small  iron 
point.  A  man  has  to  walk  fifty  miles  in  plowing 


©  II.  R.  Fcrc/cr,  Lahore,  India 

Working  over  tlie  liarcl-kakcd  Iiulian  sod  with  an  old-time 

Avooden  plow. 


an  acre,  and  then  he  has  only  scratched  the  sur¬ 
face  of  the  soil.  But  when  Mr.  Higginbottom 
tried  to  introduce  our  American  plows,  he  found 
that  Indian  fanners  could  not  use  them.  The 
trouble  was  that  with  these  large  ]fiows  they  could 
not  reach  to  twist  the  tails  of  the  oxen,  who  are 
accustomed  to  being  guided  in  this  manner.  Now, 
however,  a  new  plow  is  being  made  especially  for 
Indian  use,  which,  though  large  enough  to  turn  a 
deep  furrow,  is  small  enough  and  short  enough 
for  the  farmer  to  reach  forward  and  give  the  tails 
of  his  oxen  the  proper  twist. 


92 


THE  WONDERLAND  OF  INDIA 


Giving  a  farmer  an  agricultural  education  is  not 
always  enougli,  however,  to  lift  liiin  out  of  poverty 
and  misery.  A  certain  farmer  who  lived  near 
Jumna  Mission  Farm  was  bright  enough  and 
energetic  enough  to  watch  the  methods  used  by 
Mr.  Higginbottom’s  students  and,  to  some  extent, 
copy  them.  His  crops  were  greatly  increased,  and 
he  was  very  happy.  But  the  very  next  year  his 
landlord  doubled  the  rent  of  his  little  field. 
Imagine  the  black  cloud  of  hopelessness  which  set¬ 
tled  down  on  that  poor  fellow’s  heart,  and  the 
hearts  of  all  his  neighbors!  “What  is  the  use  of 
working  hardf”  they  asked  each  other.  “Of  what 
use  to  us  are  these  fine  new  schemes!  The  more 
rice  and  wheat  we  raise,  the  more  we  must  pay  to 
the  rich  landowner.  AVe  might  as  well  give  up 
our  holies.  It  is  the  wall  of  the  gods  that  we  shall 
always  live  in  wretchedness.” 

The  great  majority  of  Indian  farmers  rent  their 
farms  and  are  in  bondage  to  these  rich  landowners, 
who  take  from  them  in  rent  every  cent  they  pos¬ 
sibly  can.  These  men  are  often  money-lenders  as 
well  as  landlords.  Seventy-five  per  cent  a  year  is 
not  an  uncommonly  high  rate  of  interest  for  them 
to  charge.  It  is  money  wrung  from  the  necessities 
of  the  poor.  The  cruel  game  is  played  in  this  way : 
A  farmer  finds  himself  in  desperate  need  of 
money.  Perhaps  there  was  a  famine  the  preced¬ 
ing  year,  and  now  the  planting  season  has  come 
again  and  he  has  no  seed  to  sow  in  his  fields;  or 


FEEDING  THE  HUNGRY 


93 


l)orliai)s  his  daughter  is  nearly  twelve  years  old 
and  unless  she  is  married  within  a  year,  the  fam¬ 
ily,  according  to  their  ideas,  will  be  disgraced. 
And  if  she  is  married,  a  large  sum  of  money,  called 
dowry,  must  be  paid  to  the  husband’s  family.  So, 
for  one  reason  or  another,  the  man  is  driven  to  the 
money-lender.  He  is  given  the  money,  but  from 
that  time  on,  month  after  month,  year  after  year, 
he  must  shoulder  the  burden  of  tliose  enormous 
interest  payments.  Year  after  year  he  is  threat¬ 
ened,  insulted,  cursed,  and  cheated.  Can  anyone 
blame  him  if  he  sinks  back  into  a  life  of  laziness 
and  dirt? 

So,  along  with  the  new  training  in  the  best 
methods  of  farming,  it  became  necessary  for  some¬ 
one  to  help  these  farmers  of  India  to  beat  off  the 
greedy  men.  Help  has  been  lirought  to  thousands 
of  such  people  through  a  plan  wliich  has  been 
worked  out  chiefly  by  the  Young  Men’s  Christian 
Association  of  India.  Into  a  little  village  there 
will  come  a  Y.  ]\I.  C.  A.  Rural  Secretary,  who  pro¬ 
poses  to  its  leading  men  the  organization  of  a  co¬ 
operative  credit  bank.  Each  farmer  is  to  deposit 
a  rupee  or  two,  and  then,  in  case  of  need,  he  can 
borrow  a  small  sum  at  a  fair  rate  of  interest,  say 
nine  and  one-half  to  fifteen  per  cent,  instead  of 
seventy-five  per  cent.  There  is  a  Christian  Cen¬ 
tral  Cooperative  Bank  in  the  city  of  iMadras,  with 
a  capital  amounting  to  more  tlian  $25,000  from 
Avhich  these  little  village  branches  can  borrow  for 


94 


THE  WONDERLAND  OF  INDIA 


their  members.  Each  member,  however,  has  a 
proportionate  share  of  responsibility  for  the  debts 
of  his  branch. 

It  is  not  easy  to  organize  these  societies.  The 
oppressed  and  discouraged  people  have  always 
been  cheated,  and  they  have  learned  to  cheat  in 
turn.  They  know  very  little  of  trust  or  trust¬ 
worthiness.  ]\Iost  of  them  cannot  read  or  write. 
Who  will  keep  the  bank’s  accounts!  The  secre¬ 
tary  has  to  train  the  jieople  in  the  very  simplest 
matters.  He  must  jnit  the  rules  of  the  bank  into 
the  form  of  easily  memorized  verse  or  jingle. 
He  must  collect  interest  payments  when  they  fall 
due,  and  teach  the  people  the  importance  of 
promptness  and  reliability  in  business  dealings. 
He  must  find  someone  sufficiently  intelligent  and 
educated  to  understand  the  rudiments  of  book¬ 
keeping,  and,  as  soon  as  possible,  make  him  re¬ 
sponsible  for  the  banks’  funds.  All  this  takes 
time.  But  in  spite  of  these  difficulties,  there  are 
now  more  than  two  hundred  and  forty  of  these 
Cooperative  Credit  Societies,  with  a  membership 
of  more  than  six  thousand,  and  a  Avorking  capital 
of  more  than  150,000  rupees,  or  about  $50,000, 
much  of  Avhich  has  lieen  subscrilied  in  small  sums 
by  the  members  themselves.  It  is  significant  of 
the  careful  sui)ervision  and  ])lanning  that  not  one 
j)enny  of  all  the  loans  which  have  been  made  has 
been  lost.  Every  one  has  been  paid  back  at  the 
l)roper  time. 


FEEDING  THE  HUNGRY 


05 


"Wliat  lias  lieen  accomplished  is  truly  wonderful. 
Take,  for  example,  the  story  of  Jokhan  Singh,  of 
the  village  of  Chittaimi,  in  North  India.  This  fine 
old  gentleman  was  a  menilier  of  the  warrior  caste 
and,  although  he  could  neither  read  nor  write,  he 
was  keen  enough  of  wit  to  catch  by  mental  arithme¬ 
tic  even  a  five  cent  overcharge  in  an  interest  pay¬ 
ment.  When  the  cooperative  bank  was  organized 
in  Chittanni,  Jokhan  Singh  had  been  owing  five 
hundred  rupees  to  the  money-lender  for  ten  years. 
He  had  paid  many  times  this  amount  in  interest 
and  still  was  not  free  of  the  burden.  He  no  longer 
expected  ever  to  be  free.  He  fully  expected  that 
he  would  die  in  debt  and  pass  on  the  burden  to  his 
children.  The  first  thing  the  new  bank  did,  was  to 
pay  off  these  five  hundred  rupees  to  the  village 
lender,  who  did  not  want  the  matter  settled  so 
easily,  and  who  had  to  be  coaxed  and  threatened 
lief  ore  he  would  consent.  Within  a  year  or  two, 
Jokhan  Singh  had  repaid  the  full  amount  to  the 
cooperative  bank  and  was  a  free  man  again.  A 
little  later,  when  his  house  burned  down,  he  re¬ 
built  with  the  help  of  a  new  loan,  and  the  new 
house  was  larger  and  better  than  the  old  one. 

Another  story  is  told  by  a  Y.  M.  C.  A.  secretary. 
“A  poor  man  came  to  me  one  day,  very  glad  and 
joyful.  ‘Do  you  know  what  has  hap]iened?  All 
my  debts  have  lieen  paid.  T  sold  one  of  my  farm 
animals  and  got  ninty  rupees  and  cleared  off  all 
my  debts.  See,  here  is  my  receipt.’ 


06 


THE  WONDERLAND  OF  INDIA 


“I  read  the  receipt  once,  twice,  and  the  third 
time.  ‘My  friend,  what  is  this  I’  I  said.  ‘This  re¬ 
ceipt  says  nothing  about  the  debt  having  been 
paid.  It  says  you  still  owe  the  money-lender  one 
hundred  and  fifty  rupees.’  The  old  man,  more 
than  sixty  years  old,  began  to  weep  like  a  baby. 
He  could  not  stand  the  disappointment  and  went 
insane. 

“His  son,  who  was  thirty  years  old,  showed  me 
a  dagger.  ‘I  am  going  to  kill  that  money-lender,’ 
he  said.  ‘Whether  we  live  or  die,  it  matters  not. 
Look  at  my  father!’  I  went  to  the  money-lender 
and  asked  the  old  rat  to  wipe  off  the  debt.  His 
reply  was,  ‘He  owes  me  one  hundred  and  fifty 
rupees.  If  he  comes  to  kill  me,  I  have  plenty  of 
men  to  handle  him.’ 

“I  finally  got  the  money-lender  to  reduce  the 
debt  to  one  hundred  rupees.  That  was  the  best  I 
could  do.  Then  we  started  a  cooperative  bank. 
Now  the  whole  debt  is  paid,  and  the  man  is  free.” 

Wherever  these  banks  have  been  organized, 
similar  stories  are  told :  stories  of  men  who  have 
been  hel])ed  to  buy  seed  or  tools,  or  who  have  been 
enabled  to  buy  their  own  farms  instead  of  paying 
extortionate  rents  to  wealthy  landowners.  By 
such  everyday  heliffulness  as  this,  the  disciples  of 
Jesus  in  India  today  are  trying  to  carry  out  the 
spirit  of  his  words  when  He  said  that  He  came  to 
preach  deliverance  to  captives  and  the  opening 
of  the  prison-house  to  them  that  are  bound. 


CHAPTER  SEVEN 


Adventures  in  Healing 

HOSPITAL  FOR  COWS.  So  reads  a  sign  on  a 
gateway  in  Karachi.  For  hundreds  of  years,  in  all 
parts  of  India,  men  and  women,  to  prove  them¬ 
selves  pious  Hindus,  have  built  and  supported 
hospitals  for  all  sorts  of  animals.  During  one 
famine,  when  thousands  of  human  beings  starved 
to  death  and  when  only  the  very  rich  were  not 
hungry  all  the  time,  twenty  thousand  rats  were  fed 
by  Jain  priests.  These  Jains  are  one  sect  of 
Hindus  who  make  it  their  chief  rule  not  to  kill  an 
animal  or  insect,  however  small.  A  Jain  priest 
always  carries  a  little  broom  with  which  to  sweep 
his  path  before  him  lest  he  step  on  some  living 
creature  and  kill  it. 

Hospitals  for  cows,  hospitals  for  rats,  but  few 
hospitals  where  a  sick  man  or  child  could  be  taken 
and  cared  for  and  made  well  again !  And  there 
are  so  many  sick  people  in  India.  Sometimes  it 
seems  as  if  all  India  were  sick.  The  deaf,  the 
blind,  the  cripi)led,  the  lepers,  wander  everywhere. 
Instead  of  trying  to  do  something  for  them,  peo¬ 
ple  have  always  shrugged  their  shoulders  and 
said,  “It  is  the  will  of  the  gods.  If  the  gods  have 
made  little  Sita  blind,  what  can  be  done!”  Yet 
often  a  very  slight  operation  would  restore  Sita’s 
sight.  Most  of  the  blindness  is  preventable.  If 

97 


08 


THE  WONDERLAND  OF  INDIA 


the  mothers  would  only  keep  their  little  babies 
elean  and  not  allow  flies  to  settle  continually  on 
their  faces,  there  would  be  no  ‘‘sore  eyes,”  of  the 
kind  which  makes  most  of  the  blindness. 

Do  they  have  no  doctors!  Yes,  doctors  of  a 
sort.  An  amusing  story  is  told  ^  of  a  poor  little 
wife  who  came  to  a  mission  hospital  asking  for 
medicine  for  her  husband  who  was  sick  with  the 
influenza.  The  directions  on  the  bottle  said, 
“Shake  well  before  using.”  So  she  took  the  medi¬ 
cine  home  and  shook — her  ])Oor  sick  husband,  be¬ 
fore  every  dose.  “Why,”  she  said,  “I  supposed 
that  was  what  it  meant.  Our  village  doctors  al¬ 
ways  shake  sick  people  to  drive  the  demons  out.” 
That  is  a  good  example  of  their  doctors’  methods. 
If  a  little  girl  has  a  fever,  a  dreadful  clatter  with 
tin  pans  is  prescribed  to  scare  away  the  demons, 
and  her  temple  is  burned  with  a  red-hot  poker  to 
let  the  fever  demon  out.  Being  sick  in  India  does 
not  mean  a  quiet,  restful  room,  with  a  wise,  skil¬ 
ful  doctor,  and  mother  watching  over  you  and 
making  dainty  things  for  you  to  eat;  it  means 
dreadful  torture. 

To  help  these  pitiful  ones,  the  medical  mission¬ 
aries  have  come — the  first,  more  than  a  hundred 
years  ago — with  their  medicines,  their  surgical  in¬ 
struments,  and  their  scientific  knowledge.  Hun¬ 
dreds  of  hospitals  have  been  built,  and  a  countless 
multitude  of  sick  and  despairing  sufferers  have 


1  Told  by  Miss  Applegarth. 


AUVENTTRES  IN  HEALING 


<J9 

been  liealed.  And  because  their  i)atieiits  were  al¬ 
ways  asking  why  the  missionaries  should  care 
when  they  were  sick,  and  why  tliey  should  work 
so  hard  to  help  the  peojile  of  a  foreign  land,  this 
has  given  the  missionary  doctor  a  chance  to  tell 


A  leper  cluircli — the  men  on  one  side  and  the  women  on  the  other 
— giving  thanks  for  liaving  found  the  God  of  Love. 


them  about  the  Christ  who  healed  the  sick,  cured 
the  lepers,  and  made  the  blind  to  see,  and  who  still 
fills  the  hearts  of  his  followers  with  compassion 
for  all  their  human  brothers  who  are  in  need. 
Many  who  have  come  to  the  doctor  for  medicine 
for  the  body  have  found  also  a  wonderful  medi¬ 
cine  for  the  soul. 

Many  exciting  stories  could  be  told  about  the 


100 


THE  WONDERLAND  OF  INDIA 


lives  of  medical  missionaries  in  India.  For  ex¬ 
ample,  the  story  of  Dr.  Pennell’s  work  for  twenty 
years  among  the  wild  tribes  on  the  northwestern 
border  of  India,  just  across  from  Afghanistan, 
sounds  like  an  adventure  story,  and  every  word  of 
it  is  true. 

The  Afghans,  many  of  whom  live  on  the  Indian 
side  of  the  border,  claim  to  have  been  descended 
from  the  lost  tribes  of  Israel  and  are  fanatical 
Moslems.  Many  of  them  are  cruel,  treacherous, 
and  dishonest.  Yet  they  are  also  very  hospitable 
and  loyal  to  a  friend.  Their  priests,  who  are 
called  Mullahs,  are  usually  the  only  people  who 
can  read  and  write,  and  they  have  much  influence 
with  the  people.  They  are  very  bitter  against 
Christianity,  and  consequently  cause  the  mission¬ 
aries  much  trouble.  Christians  among  the  Af¬ 
ghans,  Pathans,  and  the  Moslem  tribes  are  always 
in  danger.  There  are  men  called  gliazis  who  take 
a  vow  to  kill  at  least  one  “unbeliever”  before  they 
die.  The  Mullahs  teach  them  that  by  so  doing 
they  will  wipe  away  all  their  sins  and  go  to  the 
highest  heaven  in  the  life  beyond. 

Blood  feuds  among  themselves  are  also  very 
common.  In  British  territory,  of  course,  they  are 
afraid  of  the  law,  and  open  shooting  is  not  com¬ 
mon;  but  across  the  border,  few  Afghans  dare  to 
go  out  of  their  houses  without  their  rifles  ready 
for  use.  They  have  in  their  houses  peep  holes  to 
shoot  through  rather  than  windows  to  see  through. 


ADVENTURES  IN  HEALING 


101 


Whole  families  are  often  wiped  out  in  these  feuds. 
In  Dr.  Pennell’s  hospital  patients  frequently  asked 
to  he  put  in  wards  away  from  the  windows,  for 
fear  some  enemy  would  tire  at  them.  One  man 
who  had  been  blinded  by  his  enemies  came  to  Dr. 
Pennell  begging,  “0  Sahib,  give  me  my  sight  long 
enough  to  go  and  shoot  my  enemy,  then  I  shall  be 
satisfied  to  be  blind  all  the  rest  of  my  life.” 

To  live  as  a  Christian  missionary  among  such 
vindictive,  cruel  people  surely  required  much 
courage.  Nevertheless,  Dr.  Pennell  went  quietly 
ahead  with  his  plans  and  opened  a  small  hospital 
at  Bannu,  which  is  a  small  town  about  twenty 
miles  from  the  border  of  Afghanistan.  Prom  that 
hospital  as  a  center,  he  traveled  through  all  that 
region.  He  learned  to  speak  the  native  language 
perfectly  and  dressed  in  the  native  costume,  so 
that  frequently  he  was  taken  for  an  Afghan.  He 
was  attacked  many  times  for  preaching  Christ. 
The  Mullahs  ordered  their  people  not  to  listen  to 
him  or  even  to  go  to  him  for  medicine.  Once  a 
bandit  boasted  that  he  would  kill  the  Sahib  the 
next  time  he  made  a  certain  trip.  When  Dr.  Pen¬ 
nell  heard  this,  he  made  the  trip  alone  and  un¬ 
armed  and  slept  by  the  roadside  going  and  com¬ 
ing.  The  bandit,  for  some  reason,  did  not  dare  to 
carry  out  his  threat. 

In  traveling.  Dr.  Pennell  often  placed  himself 
under  the  protection  of  the  chief  man  of  the  vil¬ 
lage  where  he  had  to  pass  the  night.  Once  in  an 


102 


THE  WONDERLAND  OF  INDIA 


outlaw  village,  the  chief  set  a  guard  of  six  armed 
men  around  his  bed.  The  doctor  was  so  tired  that 
he  dropped  into  a  sound  sleep  almost  instantly. 
Some  of  the  fanatical  Moslems  in  the  guard  wanted 
to  kill  him  during  the  night.  But  the  others  re¬ 
fused,  saying,  ‘‘See,  he  has  trusted  himself  en¬ 
tirely  to  our  protection;  see  how  soundly  he  is 
sleeping.  No  harm  must  he  done  to  him  in  our 
village.”  After  so  many  escapes,  a  tale  began  to 
spread  that  an  angel  was  protecting  the  “Daktar 
Sahib,”  and  that  it  would  be  useless  to  try  to  in¬ 
jure  him. 

The  Pathans  have  their  own  medical  men  whom 
they  called  “hakims/’  Their  favorite  method  of 
treating  the  sick  is  to  take  a  piece  of  cloth,  roll  it 
into  a  hard  wad  about  the  size  of  a  twenty-five 
cent  piece,  soak  it  in  oil,  and  set  it  on  fire  on  the 
part  that  hurts.  On  one  man  Dr.  Pennell  counted 
fifty  scars  from  such  treatments.  In  contrast  with 
these  cruel,  ignorant  men.  Dr.  Pennell  must  truly 
have  seemed  like  the  Lord  Jesus,  -come  to  earth 
again,  for  he  was  constantly  jierforming  what 
seemed  to  the  people  miracles  of  healing. 

One  class  of  cases  which  were  common  in  Dr. 
Pennell’s  practice  were  as  funny  as  they  were 
jiathetic.  Among  the  Afghans,  a  favorite  method 
of  revenge  is  to  cut  off  the  nose  of  one’s  enemy. 
So  the  “Daktar  Sahib”  was  often  called  on  to 
treat  an  amputated  nose.  Sometimes  he  was  alile 
to  put  on  an  artificial  nose  such  as  could  be  ob- 


ADVENTURES  IN  HEALING 


103 


tained  from  England,  and  so  restore  the  person’s 
looks  as  well  as  heal  the  wound.  In  one  case,  by 
mistake,  a  white  nose  was  sent  from  England  in¬ 
stead  of  a  brown  one.  Dr.  Pennell  stained  it  wal¬ 
nut  and  the  man  started  home  quite  satisfied,  but 
on  the  way  he  was  caught  in  the  rain,  and  in  his 
village  was  greeted  with  howls  of  laughter.  His 
new  nose  was  streaky. 

Besides  all  his  medical  work,  the  doctor  oiDened 
a  school  for  boys,  in  which  he  taught  several 
classes.  In  this  way  he  got  in  touch  with  the 
growing  lads  of  the  city  and  became  in  time  the 
best  known  man  in  and  around  Bannu.  During  his 
last  illness,  crowds  gathered  around  his  house, 
waiting  anxiously  for  news.  Their  grief  at  his 
death  was  intense.  They  said  of  him  at  the  time, 
and  some  say  yet,  “He  is  not  dead.  Our  Daktar 
Sahib  could  not  die.  He  lives.” 

klen  doctors,  however,  even  such  men  as  Dr. 
Pennell,  are  able  to  do  practically  nothing  to  help 
the  women  and  girls  of  India.  Sometimes  very 
little  baby  girls  or  wrinkled  old  women  may  be 
brought  to  a  doctor,  but  most  Indian  women  would 
rather  die  than  be  cared  for  by  a  man  doctor. 
Consequently,  when  the  first  woman  doctor.  Miss 
Clara  Swain,  went  to  India,  over  fifty  years  ago, 
she  found  a  country  where  the  women  had  never 
had  a  doctor.  At  first  the  people  were  very  sus- 
jiicious  and  skeptical.  “AVhat  could  a  woman 
know  anyhow!”  they  said.  But  before  very  long 


104 


THE  wonderland  OF  INDIA 


there  were  so  many  calls  for  her  that  a  hospital 
became  necessary. 

The  land  that  Dr.  Swain  wanted  for  her  hospi¬ 
tal  belonged  to  a  native  prince.  She  called  on  him 
to  ask  if  he  would  either  sell  or  lease  it  to  the  mis¬ 
sion.  To  her  great  pleasure,  she  was  cordially  re¬ 
ceived  and  the  land  was  given  to  her  outright. 
Later,  Dr.  Swain  was  asked  to  become  court  phy¬ 
sician  to  the  favorite  wife  of  an  important  native 
prince,  or  Maharajah.  For  years  she  lived  in  this 
native  state  where,  before  her  time,  no  Christians 
had  dared  to  go,  and  she  founded  schools  as  well 
as  hospitals  for  the  people. 

Everywhere  women  missionary  doctors  have 
had  the  same  experience.  At  first  people  are 
suspicious  of  them,  and  sometimes  it  seems  as 
though  all  doors  would  be  closed  to  them.  Usually 
their  first  opportunities  are  among  the  poorest 
outcastes  who  have  nothing  to  lose  through  being 
touched  by  the  strange  Miss  Sahibs  who  think  they 
know  as  much  as  men,  who  go  around  with  their 
faces  uncovered,  who  touch  all  sorts  of  jieople,  and 
handle  sores  and  other  ugly  ailments.  Then  after 
a  time  they  are  invited  into  the  homes  of  higher- 
caste  people  and  are  asked  to  treat  some  woman 
who  has  never  stepped  outside  of  her  own  home 
without  a  heavy  veil  which  covers  her  from  head 
to  toe.  No  man  doctor  would  ever  be  allowed  to 
visit  a  sick  woman  or  child  inside  one  of  these 
high-caste  homes.  The  woman  might  die,  but  that 


ADVENTURES  IN  HEALING 


105 


would  make  no  difference,  it  is  against  the  custom 
to  allow  any  strange  man  to  enter  the  home  and 
see  the  ladies  of  the  house. 

A  certain  very  wealthy  prince  who  supported 
schools  and  had  a  hospital  in  his  caiiital  city  once 
sent  for  a  woman  missionary  doctor  to  treat  his 
sick  wife  and  his  little  son  who  was  the  pride  of 
the  family.  The  doctor  was  in  England  on  her 
vacation.  There  was  no  other  woman  doctor 
within  reach,  although  the  prince  wired  desper¬ 
ately  to  all  the  nearest  large  cities.  He  finally 
cabled  to  England  and  the  doctor  took  the  first 
boat  out,  making  the  trip  in  three  weeks.  When 
she  arrived,  the  baby  boy,  the  heir  to  the  little 
kingdom,  had  died.  The  mother  finally  recovered. 

In  South  India  there  is  a  well-known  woman 
doctor  who  comes  from  a  very  old  and  famous  mis¬ 
sionary  family.  Her  grandfather  was  the  first 
medical  missionary  to  India.  All  of  his  sons  be¬ 
came  missionaries,  three  of  them  being  doctors, 
and  in  all,  thirty-one  of  his  descendents  have 
worked  in  India,  giving  a  total  of  eight  hundred 
years  of  service  to  his  people.  Miss  Ida  Scud- 
der’s  father  was  one  of  these  doctor  sons,  with  a 
hospital  and  big  practice  in  South  India.  This 
daughter  of  his,  however,  decided  that  she  would 
never,  never,  be  a  medical  missionary.  A¥hen  she 
had  finished  her  college  course  in  America,  she 
went  out  to  India  for  a  short  visit  to  her  family, 
planning,  however,  to  return  to  America.  WhiL 


100 


THE  WONDERLAND  OF  INDIA 


she  was  in  India,  her  fatlier  was  called  out  of  the 
city,  and  before  he  returned,  word  came  that  the 
wife  of  one  of  the  Christians  was  very  sick,  and 
would  not  the  Miss  Sahib,  who  had  such  a  wonder¬ 
ful  education,  come  and  help!  But  Miss  Scudder 
did  not  know  how  to  help.  Later  came  a  message 
from  a  friendly  Brahman,  that  his  favorite  daugh¬ 
ter  was  sick.  AYonld  not  the  Miss  Sahib  come  and 
help!  Again  she  could  do  nothing.  Soon  the  sick 
girPs  father  himself  came  begging  lier  to  come  and 
cure  his  daughter.  He  could  not  understand  how 
it  was  that  she,  with  her  college  education,  the 
daughter  of  such  a  wonderful  doctor,  should  know 
nothing  about  the  medical  science.  He  begged  and 
l^leaded,  but  Miss  Scudder  could  only  try  to  ex- 
idain  that  she  never  had  any  experience  in  such 
cases  and  would  be  worse  than  useless. 

The  next  day  the  little  Brahman  girl  was  dead, 
and  the  Christian  wife  was  dying.  These  two 
calls  which  she  could  not  answer,  these  two  failures 
to  help  the  women  of  India,  so  weighed  upon  her 
heart  that  Ida  Scudder  changed  all  her  plans,  went 
back  to  America  to  study  medicine,  and  today  she 
is  giving  her  life  to  healing  the  sick  among  the 
women  and  children  of  India. 

Dr.  Scudder  has  charge  of  a  large  hospital  in 
Vellore,  the  city  where  the  ‘‘Scudder”  name  has 
been  loved  for  one  hundred  years.  Besides  her 
work  in  the  hospital,  she  has  a  Ford  automobile 
which  is  fitted  up  with  medical  supplies,  Sunday- 


ADVENTURES  IN  HEALING 


107 


school  picture  rolls,  and  Bibles.  With  this  com-' 
hinatioii  traveling-  drug-store  and  Sunday-school, 
she,  Avith  an  assistant  and  a  native  Bible  woman, 
traA'els  all  over  the  surrounding  region,  giving  out 
medicines  to  the  sick  and  telling  Bible  stories. 

A  day  with  Dr.  Scudder  on  one  of  these  trips 
would  be  something  any  of  us  Avould  remember 
all  of  our  lives.  That  Ford  is  a  miracle  of  careful 
and  ingenious  packing.  On  the  step,  is  tied  a  box 
full  of  bottles  of  medicine  packed  in  cotton.  On 
top  of  the  box  is  a  bag  of  surgical  instruments. 
Hanging  on  the  glass  Avindshield  are  more  instru¬ 
ments  and  also  small  boxes  containing  medicines 
most  likely  to  be  needed.  Stowed  away  under  the 
seats  are  Bil)les  and  Testaments,  Bible  picture 
rolls,  great  i)iles  of  picture  post-cards,  and  a  lunch 
box.  They  start  ont  at  about  half-])ast  eight  in 
the  morning.  The  doctor  drives  the  car  herself. 
Besides  her  sits  Granamal,  who  makes  up  the  pre¬ 
scriptions,  and  on  the  back  seat  sits  Penina,  the 
Bible  woman.  Pretty  soon  they  come  to  a  village 
and  draAV  up  under  the  shade  of  a  banyan  tree. 
Here  is  a  little  crowd  waiting  for  them:  a  man 
with  an  abscess  in  the  jaw,  another  man  with  a 
running  ear,  and  other  cases  too  numerous  to  de¬ 
describe.  The  doctor  writes  her  prescri]itions  on 
the  margins  of  picture  post-cards  which  her  friends 
send  her  from  America.  The  patient  takes  the 
card  around  to  GranamaPs  little  drug-store  on  the 
car  step  and  gets  his  bottle  of  medicine  or  his  half 


108 


THE  WONDERLAND  OF  INDIA 


coconut  sliell  tilled  with  ointment  or  a  jiowder  in  a 
cotton  hag. 

While  the  doctor  has  been  treating  the  sick, 
Penina,  too,  has  been  busy.  The  moment  the  car 
stops,  out  she  jumps  with  her  picture  rolls  and 
Bibles,  and  soon  she  has  a  little  audience  of  pa¬ 
tients  and  their  friends  who  look  admiringly  at  the 
pictures  and  listen  eagerly  to  the  story  of  the 
loving  Christ  who  healed  the  sick  and  cleansed  the 
lepers. 

At  last,  when  all  the  sores  have  been  dressed 
and  all  the  aches  and  pains  investigated  and  pre¬ 
scribed  for,  Penina  finishes  her  preaching,  they 
pack  up  the  drug-store,  and  crank  up  the  car.  It 
is  good-by  for  this  time,  and  they  are  off  down  the 
road  to  the  next  village.  So  it  goes  all  day  long. 
Here  is  a  woman  with  a  tooth  to  be  pulled,  there  is 
a  poor  fellow  in  the  last  stages  of  consumption, 
here  is  an  old  man  with  rheumatism,  and  every¬ 
where  there  are  children  with  sore  eyes.  Prob¬ 
ably  the  doctor  has,  with  her  syringe,  saved  thou¬ 
sands  of  children  from  going  blind.  One  day, 
going  home,  she  came  upon  a  string  of  people 
across  the  road  determined  to  stop  the  car.  She 
pulled  up  and  asked  what  was  the  matter.  It 
seemed  that  early  that  morning  when  she  passed 
through  that  village,  she  had  treated  a  little  girl’s 
eyes  in  the  usual  way,  and  the  father,  amazed  at 
the  immediate  relief  and  improvement,  had  spent 
the  day  telling  his  neighbors  about  it,  and  collect- 


r'»- 


Dr.  Scudder’s  Ford  is  a  marvel  of  clever  packing,  and  wherever  it  goes  it  carries  a  message 

of  healing  and  good  cheer. 


110 


THE  WONDERLAND  OF  INDIA 


iiig  cliildreii  to  be  treated  in  tlie  same  way.  Here 
were  seventeen  of  them,  all  with  sore  eyes. 

By-and-by  the  day’s  work;  draws  to  a  close. 
The  doctor  has  treated  nearly  two  hundred  pa¬ 
tients.  Tlie  car  is  decked  with  flowers — the  chil¬ 
dren  have  lieen  bringing  them  all  day,  in  bunches, 
in  strings,  in  garlands.  The  snn  is  setting  now. 
Soon  the  front  and  tail  lights  are  lighted  and  they 
start  back  to  Vellore.  Has  it  not  been  a  wonderful 
day!  And  is  it  not  a  wonderful  life  which  this 
great-sonled,  brilliant-minded  woman  is  leading! 

Not  only  is  she  treating  thousands  of  patients 
herself ;  she  is  training  other  women  to  be  her 
helpers  and  to  take  her  place  when  she  is  gone. 
Once  when  Dr.  Scndder  was  in  this  country  rest¬ 
ing,  her  hospital  had  to  be  closed  because  there 
was  no  woman  physician  to  keep  the  work  going. 
In  all  the  mission  hospitals  in  India  the  same  ques¬ 
tion  keeps  coming  up,  ^AVho  is  there  who  could 
take  over  my  work  if  I  should  be  called  away?” 
Usually  there  is  no  one.  There  are  hospitals  in 
India  which  have  to  be  closed  for  good  because 
there  are  no  doctors.  In  some  places  rich  Indian 
princes  have  promised  to  build  and  equip  hospitals 
if  only  we  in  America  would  send  some  doctors. 
But  the  missionary  boards  have  been  unable  to 
find  trained  men  or  women  willing  to  go,  and  so 
the  opportunity  has  been  lost. 

To  help  meet  this  need,  the  missionaries  are 
now  trying  to  train  some  of  the  native  young 


ADVENTURES  IN  HEALING 


III 


people  in  India  to  become  doctors.  A  medical 
school  for  women  was  opened  in  North  India  years 
ago,  and  now  a  new  medical  school  has  been 
oi)ened  by  Dr.  Scudder  in  Vellore,  in  South  India. 
In  years  to  come  she  will  not  have  to  leave  her 
hospital  without  a  doctor.  Some  of  her  own  girls 
will  be  able  to  carry  on.  In  this  school  nearly  all 
the  students  are  Christian  girls.  Very  few  Hindu 
or  Mohammedan  girls  are  allowed  to  study  long 
enough  to  gain  a  medical  education.  And  of  the 
Christian  girls  who  are  thus  studying  to  help  their 
own  people,  the  majority  come  from  the  ontcastes. 
They  have  learned  that  they  too  are  human  beings 
and  can  help  each  other  in  the  spirit  of  Christ. 


CHAPTER  EIGHT 


New  Wonders  in  an  Ancient  Wonderland 

India  has  often  been  called  a  wonderland.  She 
has  the  highest  mountains  and  some  of  the  most 
glorious  mountain  scenery  in  the  world.  Her  Taj 
Mahal  is  undoubtedly  the  most  beautiful  building 
in  the  world.  The  traveler  from  America,  as  he 
gazes  at  the  trained  elephants  or  the  banyan  trees, 
one  of  which  can  grow  into  a  whole  forest,  or 
tastes  the  delicious  tropical  mangoes,  or  talks  with 
some  of  India’s  learned  men,  such  as  the  great 
poet  Tagore,  is  almost  sure  to  exclaim,  ‘AVhat  a 
wonderland  this  is  !  ” 

But  the  greatest  wonders  of  today  are  of  the 
kind  which  we  have  been  studying  in  this  book : 
poor  farmers  and  their  hungry  families  lifted  into 
lives  of  comfort  and  happiness  through  cooper¬ 
ative  banks  and  better  methods  of  farming;  little 
girls  going  to  school  and  l)y-and-by  to  college,  in¬ 
stead  of  being  married  before  their  childhood  is 
over;  sick  people  cured  by  such  physicians  as  Dr. 
Pennell  and  Dr.  Scudder ;  and  whole  villages  and 
whole  provinces  of  wretched  “untouchables” 
finding  new  pride  of  manhood  in  the  love  of 
Christ. 

Among  the  wonder  stories  of  India  are  those 
of  lives  transformed  and  glorified  through  the 
spirit  of  God  within  the  heart. 


NEW  WONDERS  IN  AN  ANCIENT  WONDERLAND  113 

Many  years  ago,  a  boy  of  twelve  was  driving  a 
street-sweeper’s  cart  in  the  army  cantonment  of 
a  certain  city  in  India.  He  heard  that  there  was 
a  strange  Memsahiba  (a  married  woman  mission¬ 
ary)  who  every  morning  said  prayers  on  her  ver¬ 
anda  and  read  to  the  people  from  a  strange  and 
interesting  book  and  talked  to  them  as  though  she 
really  cared  for  them.  One  morning  Mangal,  with 
a  boy  friend  of  his,  came  to  this  Memsahiba’ s 
house  and  listened  while  she  read  from  the  book. 
He  was  greatly  interested.  Belonging,  as  he  did, 
to  the  sweeper  caste,  one  of  the  ‘‘untouchables,” 
he  had  never  been  able  to  go  to  school.  The  high- 
caste  Hindu  boys  would  have  made  him  too  un¬ 
happy  if  he  had  tried  to  go  to  the  government 
school  where  they  were  taught.  So  he  came  tim¬ 
idly  to  the  Memsahiba  and  asked  if  it  would  ever 
be  possible  for  him  to  learn  to  read.  She  told 
him  to  come  to  her  as  often  as  he  could  get  away 
from  his  work.  In  time  the  boy  learned  to  read 
and  write  his  native  Urdu,  one  of  the  many  lan¬ 
guages  of  India. 

Not  long  after,  an  old  Christian  servant  came 
to  the  missionary’s  house  and  said  that  he  had  a 
convert  who  wished  to  be  baptized.  It  was  Man¬ 
gal.  In  spite  of  the  opposition  of  his  family,  who 
refused  to  have  anything  more  to  do  with  him, 
Mangal  was  baptized,  and  proved  true  to  his  faith. 
Some  time  later,  when  a  community  of  sweepers 
asked  for  a  worker  to  come  and  teach  them,  Man- 


114 


THE  WONDERLAND  OP  INDIA 


gal  offered  to  go.  Ho  lived  with  them  two  or  three 
years,  teaching  them  what  it  would  mean  to  live 
as  Christians  and  studying  intently  whenever  ho 
could  get  hold  of  books. 

So  well  did  he  study  that  when,  a  little  later,  lie 
applied  for  admission  to  the  missionary  theologi¬ 
cal  school,  he  was  accepted,  although  he  had  never 
been  to  school  a  single  day  in  all  his  life.  All  his 
study  had  been  with  the  ]\I emsaliiha  or  else  by 
himself.  In  si)ite  of  this  lack  of  the  usual  school¬ 
ing,  Mangal  stayed  at  the  seminary  and  graduated 
at  the  head  of  his  class. 

After  graduation  he  took  the  name  of  Mangal 
Harris,  in  recognition  of  the  American  who  fur¬ 
nished  the  money  to  help  him  gain  his  theological 
education.  He  became  a  great  Urdu  scholar  famed 
for  his  learning,  and  a  leader  among  the  native 
Christian  preachers.  He  was  also  famous  for  his 
lectures  ou  Christianity,  which  were  attended  by 
crowds  of  Mohammedans  and  high-caste  educated 
Hindus.  A  certain  Hindu  holy  man,  or  sadhu, 
whom  he  converted  to  Christ,  gave  him  the  saffron 
colored  rolie  which  sadhus  wear  and  told  him  to 
wear  it  as  a  Christian  sadhu,  which  he  did  from 
that  time  on.  In  time  he  had  the  joy  of  seeing 
his  own  family,  who  had  cast  him  off,  won  to 
Christ. 

IVhen  he  died  suddenly  from  cholera  a  few  years 
ago,  the  whole  city  where  he  lived  mourned  for 
him,  Christians  and  non-Christians  alike.  Had  it 


NEW  WONDERS  IN  AN  ANCIENT  WONDERLAND  115 


not  been  for  the  missionaries,  that  boy  Mangal 
would  have  spent  his  life  in  ignorance,  and  all 
those  wonderful  gifts  of  soul  and  mind  would 
have  remained  undeveloped  and  unused. 


About  five  thousand  people  were  gathered  at  a 
mela  in  a  little  mountain  villago  on  the  Kam 
Ganga,  a  tributary  of  the  sacred  river  Ganges. 
The  crowds  bathed  in  the  sacred  waters,  wor- 
ship])ed  at  the  idol  shrines,  shopped  at  the  many 
stalls  of  merchandise,  and  stopped  now  and  then 
to  listen  to  the  preaching  of  two  missionaries  who 
stood  among  their  little  band  of  Christians.  As 
the  crowd  drifted  by,  a  woman  missionary  sud¬ 
denly  clutched  her  husband’s  arm.  “There’s  a 
little  girl  from  the  Pauri  school,”  she  declared. 

The  girl  she  saw  was  easily  distinguished  from 
the  rest  of  the  crowd.  Her  clothes  were  cleaner 
and  of  a  somewhat  different  cut,  and  the  material 
her  dress  was  made  of  was  that  used  in  the  mis¬ 
sion  school  at  Pauri. 

By  making  cautious  inquiries,  the  missionaries 
found  that  the  child’s  name  was  Sita,  a  very  com¬ 
mon  name  for  girls  in  North  India.  Her  father 
and  mother  had  become  Christians  and  had  sent 
her  to  the  Pauri  school.  Then  her  father  and  a 
brother  had  died,  and  the  poor  mother,  deciding 
that  the  gods,  as  a  curse  for  her  turning  Christian, 
had  caused  the  death  of  her  husband  and  the  little 
boy,  had  stolen  Sita  from  the  school  and  gone  back 


116 


THE  WONDERLAND  OF  INDIA 


to  her  own  people.  The  two  had  walked  nearly  a 
hundred  miles  over  the  mountains,  back  to  the 
mother’s  two  brothers,  who  were  blacksmiths.  Ac¬ 
cording  to  Hindu  law,  a  widow  and  her  children  are 
the  property  of  either  her  husband’s  people  or  her 
own.  These  two  brothers  were  poor,  too  poor  to 
provide  food  for  two  more  mouths,  so  they  dressed 
up  the  mother  and  daughter  in  their  best  clothes 
and  took  them  to  the  mela  to  be  sold. 

By  the  time  the  missionary  happened  to  see 
them,  Sita  and  her  mother  were  both  afraid.  The 
mother  had  begun  to  realize  that  the  brothers  were 
planning  to  sell  them,  and  she  wuis  wishing  that 
she  and  her  little  Sita  were  safely  back  at  Pauri 
with  the  good  teachers  there. 

With  the  missionaries  at  the  mela  was  a  native 
Christian  doctor  who  had  been  giving  medical  at¬ 
tention  to  many  people  who  came  to  him  at  the 
missionary’s  tent.  He  was  immediately  informed 
of  the  little  Christian  girl  and  her  mother,  and 
when  he  hunted  them  u]),  he  was  able  to  persuade 
them  to  come  with  him.  Before  the  blacksmith 
brothers  knew  what  had  happened,  the  two  were 
taken  to  the  nearest  mission  school,  fifteen  miles 
away.  A  year  later  the  mother  married  the  good 
doctor,  and  Sita,  when  she  was  old  enough,  was 
sent  to  Lai  Bagh,  the  Isabella  Thoburn  School  for 
girls. 

Twenty  years  after,  the  missionary  whose  wife 
had  caught  sight  of  Sita  and  her  mother  at  the 


NEW  WONDERS  IN  AN  ANCIENT  WONDERLAND  117 


mela  was  on  a  journey  among  the  villages  of  this 
mountain  region.  Going  around  a  turn  of  the 
road,  he  met  a  well-dressed  woman.  To  his  sur¬ 
prise  she  called  him  by  name.  It  was  Sita !  She 
told  him  proudly  that  she  was  a  doctor  in  a  wom¬ 
an’s  hospital  in  the  province  of  the  Punjab  in 
northwestern  India.  At  that  time  she  was  at 
home  on  a  visit.  She  had  helped  her  stepbrother 
through  medical  school,  and  he  too  was  now  a 
doctor. 

That  day’s  work  at  the  mela  and  the  years  of 
quiet  teaching  which  followed,  have  given  to  India 
two  faithful  servants  whose  whole  lives  are  being 
spent  in  healing  the  sick  and  in  scattering  every¬ 
where  the  light  of  the  good  news  of  Christ. 


Another  remarkable  story  comes  from  Mr.  Hig- 
ginbottom’s  missionary  farm  at  Allahabad.  It  is 
the  story  of  Harry  Dutt.  Harry  was  the  son  of  a 
native  Christian  preacher  and  was  spoiled  and 
lazy  and  unreliable.  After  one  term  at  the  Jumna 
Farm,  Mr.  Higginbottom  told  him  he  had  better 
not  come  back,  he  was  wasting  his  time.  Harry 
became  very  angry,  but  finally  begged  for  another 
chance.  He  was  given  five  acres  of  undeveloped 
land  to  see  what  could  be  done  wdth  it.  The  next 
year  a  delegation  of  Indian  princes  visited  the 
mission  farm.  They  were  greatly  pleased  by  all 
they  saw,  but  were  particularly  impressed  by  one 
lot  of  five  acres.  “Who  had  charge  of  that!” 


118 


THE  WONDERLAND  OF  INDIA 


asked  one  of  the  men.  ]\[r.  Higginbottom  called 
to  a  l)oy :  ‘  ‘  Come  here,  Harry  Dutt,  the  Mahara¬ 
jah  is  asking  about  your  little  farm.”  In  time 
Harry  Dutt  was  offered  a  fine  ])ositioii  by  the 
i\[aharajah  as  gardener-in-chief  of  his  own  private 
estate.  The  boy  refused,  however,  because  he 
preferred  to  teach  farming  in  a  mission  school  at 
a  much  smaller  salary.  Today  he  is  one  of  the 
best  teachers  with  Mr.  Higginbottom  at  the  Ag¬ 
ricultural  Institute,  heliiing  to  train  other  Indian 
farmer  hoys  to  help  India. 


AVonderful,  also,  is  the  story  of  the  conversion 
of  the  criminal  tribes  of  India.  These  are  tribes 
who  for  generations  have  lived  by  stealing.  Some 
are  housebreakers,  others  are  counterfeiters, 
others  steal  grain  from  fields  and  stacks.  Our 
Hnglish  word,  “thug,”  was  the  name  of  one  of  the 
most  famous  of  these  trilies.  The  Thugs  were  a 
tribe  who  rohlied  and  strangled  their  victims. 
Their  activities  were  entirely  suppressed  by  the 
Hnglish  Government  years  ago.  The  memliers  of 
these  tribes  do  not  feel  the  slightest  shame  about 
their  way  of  living.  They  consider  it  their  trade, 
({uite  as  respectable  as  farming  or  weaving  or  any 
of  the  other  occupations  of  India.  They  are  very 
religious  after  their  fashion,  each  tribe  worship- 
])ing  the  god  or  goddess  of  their  particular  kind 
of  thievery.  The  children,  almost  from  babyhood, 
are  taught  clever  methods  of  stealing  and  hiding. 


NEW  WONDERS  IN  AN  ANCIENT  WONDERLAND  II!) 


Of  course  the  government  has  tried  desperately 
to  break  up  this  systematic  stealing.  Hundreds 
and  thousands  have  been  caught  and  sent  to 
prison.  But  the  moment  such  prisoners  are  re¬ 
leased,  they  go  right  back  to  their  stealing  again. 
Long  prison  terms  do  no  good  at  all  with  men  who 
have  been  brought  up  to  suppose,  as  a  matter  of 
course,  that  they  have  a  right  to  steal. 

Of  late  years  the  Government  has  turned  to 
the  missionaries  for  help.  Many  of  these  robber 
tribes,  a  whole  tribe  at  a  time,  have  been  turned 
over  to  the  missionaries  to  be  supervised  and 
taught  in  settlements.  Industrial  and  trade 
schools  and  agricultural  schools  have  been  started 
among  them;  and  these,  together  with  patience 
and  kindness  and  the  glad  tidings  of  Christ,  have 
worked  miracles.^ 

The  first  work  of  this  kind  was  undertaken  by 
the  Salvation  Army.  At  the  start,  the  inside  of 
the  settlement,  according  to  Booth-Tucker,  the 
Salvation  Army  leader,  was  “pandemonium  let 
loose, — the  fighting,  quarrelling,  drinking,  and 
gambling  are  indescribable.  The  squalor,  the  rags, 
the  wretchedness  are  beyond  words.”  Little  by 
little,  however,  trade  and  farm  schools  were 
started.  The  girls  were  taught  to  weave  and  sew. 
As  the  children  grew  up,  they  discovered  that  they 
really  liked  to  earn  their  living  instead  of  stealing 

1  An  interesting  story  of  these  tribes  may  be  foniul  in  India  on 
the  March,  (Cliap.  V),  by  Alden  H.  Clerk,  publisbed  by  the 
^lissionary  Education  Movement. 


120 


THE  WONDERLAND  OF  INDIA 


it  from  other  people.  Today  there  are  twenty- 
nine  of  these  settlements  under  the  Salvation 
Army  alone,  and  each  of  the  leading  Christian  de¬ 
nominations  has  at  least  one  criminal  tribe  settle¬ 
ment  under  its  care. 

A  converted  member  of  one  of  these  tribes  has 
been  for  many  years  a  sirdar,  or  steward,  at  a 
certain  mission  in  North  India.  On  one  occasion 
the  missionary  and  his  wife  were  called  away  sud¬ 
denly  for  a  week’s  trip  and  in  the  excitement  left 
open  a  safe  in  which  large  sums  were  sometimes 
kept.  The  sirdar  soon  discovered  this,  while  mak¬ 
ing  his  rounds.  He  did  not  know  how  to  close  the 
safe,  but  for  the  next  week,  until  the  missionaries 
returned,  he  and  his  wife  took  turns  watching 
night  and  day.  Yet  that  man’s  ancestors  for  gen¬ 
erations  were  all  thieves ! 


In  the  early  days  of  missionary  work,  and  for 
a  long  time  afterwards,  the  missionaries  from  the 
IVest  were  the  leaders.  More  and  more,  however, 
the  Indian  Christians  are  conducting  their  own 
churches.  The  missionaries  are  eager  to  have 
them  develop  in  this  way,  and  so  far  as  possible 
train  them  for  Christian  work.  In  one  city,  where 
a  missionary  college  is  located,  groups  of  school 
])oys  set  out  every  Sunday  morning  from  the  mis¬ 
sion  on  tours  through  the  native  sections  of  the 
town.  With  each  group  of  boys  is  a  Christian 
college  student  or  professor.  They  carry  their 


NEW  WONDERS  IN  AN  ANCIENT  WONDERLAND  121 

lijRiiii-books  and  a  large  Bible  picture  roll  which 
was  first  used  in  some  Beginner  ^s  Sunday-school 
class  in  America  and  then  sent  to  India.  When 
they  come  to  the  chosen  street,  the  boys  sing  a  few 
Christian  hymns  and  hang  up  the  picture  roll 
upon  the  trunk  of  some  tree  or  against  a  wall. 
Soon  a  large  crowd  of  Hindu  boys  and  girls  gather 
around,  and  the  older  student  talks  to  them  a 
little  while  about  the  picture  on  the  roll,  telling 
them  the  Bible  story.  Then  the  boys  distribute 
colored  Bible  picture  cards — also  from  America — 
and  after  a  closing  hymn  or  two,  return  to  the 
mission.  At  Christmas  time  many  of  the  little 
folks  who  have  attended  these  street  classes  regu¬ 
larly  are  invited  to  the  mission  for  a  party  and 
are  sent  home  happy  with  sweets  of  one  kind  or 
another. 

Out  of  the  classes  of  Christian  boys  who  make 
these  Sunday  morning  trips  will  come  leaders  who 
will  know  how  to  tell  the  good  news  of  Christ  to 
their  own  people. 


One  of  the  most  famous  of  the  native  Christian 
leaders  is  Sadhu  Sundar  Singh,  a  man  who  comes 
of  a  wealthy  and  educated  family  of  Sikhs,  a  sect 
in  the  Hindu  religion.  Like  Paul  of  old,  he  was 
full  of  zeal  for  the  religion  of  his  fathers,  and 
again  like  Paul,  to  a  certain  extent  he  persecuted 
the  Christians.  To  show  his  contempt  for  Chris¬ 
tianity,  he  publicly  burned  a  copy  of  the  Bible. 


122 


THE  AVONDERLAND  OF  INDIA 


lie  planned  to  be  a  “holy  man,”  or  sadliu.  He 
learned  to  sit  and  meditate  for  days  at  a  time  in 
one  or  the  other  of  the  seA^en  sacred  postures. 
But  somehoAV,  he  never  found  peace. 

Three  days  after  he  had  burned  the  Bible,  at  a 
quarter  before  six  in  the  morning  there  came  to 
him  a  wonderful  vision.  He  belieA^ed,  and  still 
believes,  that  in  this  Ausion  Jesus  Christ  came  aus- 
ibly  into  his  room.  As  a  result  of  that  Ausion,  ho 
proclaimed  himself  a  Christian,  and,  instead  of 
becoming  a  Hindu  sadhu,  he  became  a  Christian 
sadhu,  like  Mangal  Harris,  and  has  gone  all  over 
India  and  into  other  countries,  Avearing  a  sadhu ’s 
saffron  colored  robe.  Not  only  has  he  preached 
the  good  noAvs  of  Christianity  to  his  OAvn  people, 
but  he  has  gone  into  the  Forbidden  Lands — Tibet, 
Afghanistan,  and  Nepal.  Thus  he  has  been  one  of 
the  first  foreign  missionaries  to  go  out  from 
among  the  natAe  Christians  of  India.  “He  gave 
me  a  message  to  take,”  says  the  Sadhu,  “and  I 
liaA'e  gone.  I  haA^e  been  put  in  prison  and  perse¬ 
cuted,  but  I  liaA^e  ahvays  been  delAered.” 

Sundar  Singh  has  made  many  trips  into  Tibet, 
that  strange,  lofty,  desolate  plateau  Avhich  is  some¬ 
times  called  “the  roof  of  the  Avorld.”  Only  a  feAV 
foreigners  have  ever  seen  the  capital  city,  Lhassa. 
Even  today  it  is  a  dangerous  proceeding  to  enter 
the  country. 

The  Sadhu  has  had  some  exciting  experiences. 
He  has  been  nearly  frozen  to  death  in  snoAV-storms, 


NEW  WONDERS  IN  AN  ANCIENT  WONDERLAND  123 

charged  by  wild  yak, — a  kind  of  mouiitaiii  bulfalo, 
— and  captured  by  bandits.  On  one  occasion  lie 

so  touched  the  hearts  of  the  bandits  that  thev  re- 

%/ 

stored  his  property,  gave  him  tea, — alas,  in  a  dirty 
cup, — and  finally  set  him  free.  On  another  occa¬ 
sion  he  was  thrown  into  a  well  forty  feet  deeji, 
th.e  top  of  the  well  was  locked  and  the  key  was  left 
in  the  girdle  of  the  lama,  the  chief  man  of  the  vil¬ 
lage.  “I  was  there  two  days  and  two  nights,  and 
the  third  night  somebody  came  and  opened  the 
well.  I  asked  for  help.  He  let  down  a  rope  and 
imlled  me  up.  It  was  quite  a  dark  night  and  I 
could  not  see  him  plainly.  When  I  Avas  out  of  the 
Avell,  he  disappeared.  I  Avaited  for  him,  but  he  did 
not  return.  Christ  said,  ‘Lo!  I  am  Avith  yon  al- 
Avays.’  And  He  with  me.  ” 


These  are  stories  of  only  a  feAV  of  the  men  and 
Avomen  avIio  are  helping  to  make  India  a  country 
Avhere  boys  and  girls  Avill  liaAm  a  chance  to  play 
and  learn  and  be  happy;  a  country  A\diere  there 
Avill  be  physicians  and  medicine  for  all  Avho  are 
sick;  a  country  Avhere  the  jieople  Avill  forget  the 
superstitions  Avhich  make  them  fearful  of  every¬ 
thing;  a  country  Avhere  there  Avill  be  peace  and 
contentment,  and  good-Avill  and  brotherhood,  as 
Avell  as  beauty.  There  are  still  too  feAV  such  men 
and  Avomen  as  Mangal  and  Sita  and  Sadhu  Sundar 
Singh.  They  cannot  do  the  Avork  unaided.  Mis¬ 
sionaries  are  still  needed— our  interest  and  help 


124 


THE  WONDERLAND  OF  INDIA 


are  still  needed.  The  better  we  come  to  know  the 
people  of  India,  the  more  we  shall  like  them  and 
the  happier  we  shall  be  to  give  them  what  help  we 
can  and  to  be  counted  by  them  as  their  friends. 


WORD  LIST 


As  a  general  rule  it  may  Ije  said  that  in  the  Indian  languages 
the  vowels  are  pronounced  in  the  Italian  manner  rather  than  the 
English;  i.e.,  like  the  vowels  in  do,  re,  mi,  fa  of  the  mxisical  scale. 
There  is  a  short  d  which  is  often  found  at  the  close  of  Indian 
words  and  sometimes  elsewhere.  It  is  pronounced  like  the  d  in 
aboard.  Indian  languages  have  no  flat  a  as  in  at.  The  u  is  pro¬ 
nounced  like  ou  in  soup.  Many  Indian  words  have  an  aspirated 
letter  which  appears  as  bh,  dh,  th,  etc.  This  is  given  an  explosive 
pronunciation  like  the  bh  in  abhor.  Strong  accent  upon  one  or 
more  syllables  of  a  word  is  not  so  common  in  the  Indian  languages 
as  in  English.  Each  syllable  is  given  very  nearly  the  same  weight 
in  speaking  the  word. 

For  common  place  names,  a  pronouncing  gazetteer  should  he 
consulted.  For  certain  wmrds  from  the  text,  the  pronunciation 
of  which  is  not  immediately  clear,  the  following  phonetic  form  of 
spelling  is  given : 


Amrito  (Am-ree-toe) 

Asoka  ( A-so-kah ) 
atia-patia(  ah-tee-yii-pah-tee-ya ) 

Bannu  (Bun-noo) 

Baranagar  ( Bah-rah-nug'-ger ) 
Bengali  (Ben-gah'-lee) 

Bhajan  (Bhud'-jun) 
Bodhisattva  (Bo-dhee-sat-wah) 

chappatis  (cha-pah-tee) 
Chittani  (Chit-tah-nee) 

Debra  Dun  (Day'-ril  Doon) 
dhoti  (dhoe-tee) 

Dilawar  (Dih-lah'-wahr ) 

fakir  (fa-keer') 

Ganesh  (Gii-naysh') 

Gautama  (Goh-ta-ma) 

Ghazi  (Gii-zee) 

Granamal  ( Grah-na-mahl ) 
hookah  (“oo”  as  in  hook) 

Isai-log  (Ee-sah-ee  log,  “o”  as 
in  hold) 


Jhelum  ( Jhee'-lum ) 

Jokhan  Singh  (Joe-khun  Sing) 

Kshattriya  (K-shut'-ree-ii) 

lama  ( lah'-ma ) 

Maharajah  (Mah-ha-rah-zhah ) 
Mamtaz-i-Malial  (Muum-tahz- 
ee-Ma-hahl') 

Mangal  (Mun-gul) 

Marathi  ( Ma-rah'-tee ) 
mela  ( may'-la ) 

Memsahiba  (maym-sah-heebha ) 
Mukti  (muuk'-tee) 
mullah  (muul'-lah) 

pagri  (pug'-ree) 

Pandita  (pun-dee-tah) 

Pathan  (Put-tahn') 

Pauri  (Pow'-ree) 

Penina  (Pe-nee'-nah ) 

Punjab  (Puun-jahh) 

Rama  ( Rahmma ) 

Ramahai  (Rah-mah-hye) 
rupee  ( roo-pee ) 


125 


126 


THE  WONDERLAND  OF  INDIA 


Sadhu  ( Sah-dhoo ) 

Sahib  (Sah-heeb) 
sari  (sali-ree) 

Shukboo  (Slinck-boo) 

Sita  (See-tall) 

Siva  (See-vah) 

Sonika  (Sohn'-ee-kah) 

Srinagar  ( Sree-iuig'-ger ) 

Sundar  Singli  ( Siiun-der-Sing) 

Taj  Mahal  (Tahj  Ma-hahT) 

Tika  Ram  (Tee-kah  Rahm) 

Vaishya  (Vy'-sha) 

Yisii  (Yee-soo) 

lYrses  on  pages  60,  61 

Rajah  Y^isu,  aiyah  (Rah-zhah  Y^ee-soo,  eye-yah). 

Shaitan  ko  jitne  ke  liye  (Shy-tahn  koe  jit-nee  kay  lee-ye). 
Ydsu,  misih  ki  Jai  (Yee-soo  mus-seeh  kee  jye). 


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